Rose Weasley and the Rising Darkness
by autumn midnights
Summary: Rose's first year at Hogwarts. A meeting on the train leads to unlikely friendships for Rose and her cousin Al. But that's not the most noteworthy event - new Dark forces are rising, and it seems like these Dark forces have a supporter within Hogwarts. Now completed.
1. King's Cross Station

Mass Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Harry Potter, or else I wouldn't be on this site. I would be a billionaire. Oh, and this disclaimer applies to the whole fic, as I don't feel like putting one of these at the top of every chapter. Also, some dialogue in this chapter is taken from DH.

Summary: It's the first year at Hogwarts for Rose Weasley and her cousin Al Potter, and a chance meeting on the train leads to very unlikely friendships. Meanwhile, new Dark forces are rising, and these Dark forces seem to have somebody planted at Hogwarts - and that person is attacking Muggle-born and 'blood-traitor' students. After somebody in Rose's family is attacked, Rose and her friends decide to poke around and see if they can find the person behind it. But of course, sticking your nose where it doesn't belong usually has consequences, and they're about to find out. Rated K plus for mild language and mild violence, but nothing worse than what's in the first three Harry Potter books.

* * *

Rose Weasley was excited to be heading to Hogwarts. It was her first year, and it would be the first time that she was away for such a long time. She had stayed a week at Shell Cottage once when Aunt Fleur and Uncle Bill had invited all the Weasley children and Teddy; another time she and Hugo spent two weeks at the Potters' when her parents decided to take a second honeymoon. However, those places were almost as much of a home to her as her own house, not to mention that she would be away at Hogwarts for a much longer time than one to two weeks. She knew that she'd miss seeing her parents, her aunts and uncles, not to mention her younger cousins - Louis, Lucy, Lily, and Hugo - who wouldn't be coming to Hogwarts quite yet. But this was still exciting to her; it was a new opportunity to learn from people other than her parents, and everybody, she knew, loved Hogwarts.

The fact that Al was coming also made things better. Rose and Al were almost inseparable; they always had been. Although the Weasley-Potter family was a very close-knit one, it still had its little groups. Teddy, Victoire, Freddie, and Dominique, as the oldest, always stuck together. James, Roxie, and Molly were close. Louis and Lucy were best friends. Hugo adored Lily, and always tagged along after her, something she usually enjoyed. Lastly, Rose and Al were a combination of cousins, best friends, and siblings. They were, perhaps, the closest group out of the whole family, and everybody knew it. She was excited to be going with him, even if she didn't know that they'd be in the same house.

She wasn't sure which house she would end up in. She knew what the descriptions of the houses were, as she had grown up fully knowing about the Wizarding world. However, she wasn't sure which one was best for her. She loved to learn, with a Ravenclaw-like fervor, yet she was also brave, like a Gryffindor and a hard worker, a Hufflepuff trait. The only house she wasn't sure about was Slytherin - but then, she was rather ambitious like them. She had already decided, though, that she would beg not to be put in Slytherin if it came to that. She definitely did not want to be the first Slytherin in her family; she wasn't rebellious enough for that. However, it didn't particularly matter which of the other houses she was placed in.

Teddy, Freddie, Roxie, and James were all Gryffindors. Victoire, Dominique, and Molly were Ravenclaws. Although there were no Hufflepuffs in the family yet, it was certainly an acceptable place to be; Aunt Audrey had been a Hufflepuff, despite the fact that she was very nearly Sorted into Ravenclaw. She wasn't sure which house she would really prefer. They all seemed rather nice, to be honest, and she decided just to wait and see. She knew Al was definitely not a Ravenclaw - he hated school too much for that - or a Slytherin, despite what James might say. Al was not sneaky enough to be a Slytherin. Lily, maybe, but definitely not Al.

She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the Potters to arrive. Per her request, her parents had driven Hugo and her to King's Cross Station earlier than necessary. She had begged for that - "Please, I just don't want to be late, and you know that Muggles have traffic problems a lot"- and they had complied with her request. She had also changed into her Hogwarts robes early, rather than getting dressed on the train, as she didn't want to sort through her trunk for her robes at the last minute (like Al, no doubt, would be doing). The problem with getting there early, though, was the waiting. Waiting was no fun, especially on a day like today. This was one of the most important days of her life so far - the day that she finally went to Hogwarts.

Rose, Hugo, and their parents began to walk forward, looking for the Potters. Thick white steam from the Hogwarts Express was obscuring them from seeing much farther than a few feet in front of them, but thankfully, they quickly found one another. James wasn't there, having run off rather than stay with his parents - which wasn't really a surprise to her. "Hi," Al said to Rose, a note of relief in his tone.

"Parked all right, then?" Rose's father asked Uncle Harry before Rose could respond to Al's greeting. "I did. Hermione didn't believe I could pass a Muggle driving test, did you? She thought I'd have to Confund the examiner."

"No I didn't!" Mum protested. "I had complete faith in you."

Dad muttered something to Uncle Harry that Rose didn't hear. Meanwhile, Lily and Hugo were talking excitedly about the four houses of Hogwarts; Lily was dominating the conversation, as Hugo wasn't a particularly talkative person and Lily was. Rose heard something along the lines of 'I definitely won't be in Ravenclaw, as I'm not like Rose or Molly, I'm not obsessed with school'.

She was about to say how she wasn't _obsessed _with school, she just liked to learn, when her father jumped into the conversation. "If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you. But no pressure." His tone was joking, but Rose knew her father still favored Gryffindor, although he had become better as an adult than he was while he was actually in school.

Lily smirked as her Aunt Hermione gasped, "Ron!", and Hugo laughed. Al's face, however, changed to a solemn gaze, as did Rose's. She could be in Gryffindor, but there was also a chance of her being in one of the other houses. And Al...she still wasn't sure about him. "He doesn't mean it," her mother reassured the two new first years as the steam began to thin slightly.

"Look who it is," Dad said, nodding to a point about fifty meters away. A small family - two parents and a boy - stood there. The boy looked to be around Rose's age, and greatly resembled his father, with pale skin and white-blond hair. The mother had dark hair falling loosely around her shoulders, but Rose couldn't tell any further what she looked like, as the woman had seen someone she knew and turned away to greet them. The man nodded curtly at them before also turning away. "So that's little Scorpius," Dad muttered to Rose. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."

"Ron, for heaven's sake. Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school." Rose's mother rolled her eyes at her husband's antics, although she seemed slightly amused. Such was usually the case.

"You're right, sorry," he replied, although he didn't seem particularly sorry. "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood."

"Hey!" James came into sight, although he didn't have either a trunk or an owl with him, having already dropped those things off in his compartment on the train. "Teddy's back there," he said, gesturing wildly to the clouds of steam. "Just seen him. And guess what he's doing?" There was no reaction from the adults. "Snogging Victoire! Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing -"

"You interrupted them?" Aunt Ginny said. "You are so like Ron-"

James continued talking before Rose's father could take offense to that statement. "And he said he'd come to see her off! And then he told me to go away...he's snogging her!" he added again, as if he hadn't already said that twice. Rose wasn't sure exactly why he was so excited; after all, Teddy was already part of the Weasley-Potter family. It didn't matter to her if he dated Victoire or not. Of course, in James' mind, it was probably an opportunity for him to ask Teddy about snogging. James was already attracting the attention of girls.

"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married! Teddy would really be part of the family then," Lily answered, muttering something to Hugo about 'wedding planning' and 'if they put me in a pink dress, I'll destroy something'. Nobody seemed to hear that part of her sentence, however, apart from Rose and Hugo. She wouldn't put it past Lily to destroy something if the younger girl was forced to do something she didn't want to.

"He already comes round for dinner about four times a week. Why don't we just invite him to live with us and have done with it?" Uncle Harry said.

"Yeah!" James said excitedly. "I don't mind sharing with Al - Teddy could have my room!" Al looked slightly scared at the concept of sharing a room with James, who was the perfect example of an annoying older brother. The two of them sharing a room would definitely result in catastrophes.

"No," their father said, destroying that idea. "You and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished." He checked his watch. "It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board."

"Don't forget to give Neville our love," Aunt Ginny told James, hugging him.

"Mum! I can't give a professor love!"

"But you know Neville-"

James rolled his eyes. "Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't walk into Herbology and give him love!" Shaking his head at the ridiculousness of his mother to assume such a thing, he aimed a kick at Al. "See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals."

"I thought they were invisible..._You said they were invisible!" _Al's voice took on a note of panic.

James laughed, quickly hugged his father, and leapt up onto the train, waving once before running off to find his friends, most likely including Roxanne, who was in his year and as much a prankster as he was.

"Thestrals are nothing to worry about," Uncle Harry reassured Al. "They're gentle things, there's nothing scary about them. Anyway, you won't be going up to school in the carriages, you'll be going in the boats."

Hermione hugged Rose as the Potters said their goodbyes to Al. "Have a lovely time at school - I know you will. I'll remember to write you, don't worry. Oh, and you have a copy of _Hogwarts, A History _if you get bored, I know - it is fascinating, isn't it? Anyway, have fun at Hogwarts, and I'll see you at Christmas." She wiped a tear from her cheek. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too," Rose said quietly. She hugged her father as well, and her brother (although the last one was quick, and Hugo squirmed away), before hopping up onto the train and waiting for Al, who was quietly talking to his father. Only a few seconds later, Al joined her.

"Why are they all staring?" Al demanded. Several students were hanging out the window, looking at Uncle Harry. Rose had been wondering that too. Although she knew that her uncle - and, to some extent, her parents - were well-known for defeating Voldemort, she hadn't known that they were so famous as to be instantly recognized by a group of Hogwarts students.

"Don't let it worry you," Rose's father said. "It's me. I'm extremely famous."

Al and Rose laughed, as did Hugo and Lily. They waved as the train began to move away from King's Cross Station, leaving behind the parents and younger siblings of the students now headed on the path to Hogwarts. Hogwarts was an adventure, Rose knew, and she couldn't wait to get there and begin her own. The adults she knew - her own parents, Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, Uncle George and Aunt Angelina, Neville, Hannah, Luna...they had all had such interesting times there. Dumbledore's Army, Quidditch, saving the world...what would be in store for Rose and Al?

She wasn't sure, but she knew that she couldn't wait to find out.

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**All right, so this is the beginning of a multi-chapter fic. I plan to do seven fics focusing on Rose, one for each year at Hogwarts. Anyway, please review, I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this! **


	2. The Hogwarts Express

The train pulled out of King's Cross Station within seconds, and it disappeared from view. Rose turned away from the window. "We better find a compartment."

"Hopefully there is one," Al muttered nervously.

"There will be," Rose answered. "The train has enough room for all the students. Come on, Al." She tugged on his arm and led him down the train, peering in each individual compartment until she found one that had enough room. She opened the door partway. "May we come in?" she asked the lone occupant, a dark-haired girl lounging across one of the bench-like seats.

"Nobody's stopping you," the girl responded, gesturing to the seat across from her. Rose and Al promptly sat down. "So who're you?"

Rose was pleasantly surprised. Most people that she met knew who she was; even people that she met in Diagon Alley had known who she was, because of her parents. The _Daily Prophet_ commonly printed articles on the Weasley-Potter family, and many people eagerly read these articles that offered glimpses into the lives of the most famous family in Wizarding Britain. It was nice to find somebody who didn't know she was the daughter of two famous people before they even met her. "I'm Rose Weasley, and this is my cousin Al Potter," she replied, motioning toward Al.

"Hi," Al said.

She nodded at him. "I would've known that, if I actually bothered to pick up the Daily Rag every once in a while. The day I read that is the day that they print something important." She looked like she was going to say more, but at that moment, the door opened and a blond boy - the one that Rose's father had warned her about - stumbled inside, thrown off-balance by the motion of the train. Or perhaps he was just clumsy, as the motion of the train wasn't extremely disorienting. "Who are you?" the girl asked.

"Scorpius Malfoy. Can I sit here?" He looked pointedly at the girl, who was sprawled out across the seat meant for two people. She reluctantly sat up normally, allowing him to sit down. He glanced at Rose and Al. "You're...one of the Weasleys, and you're Albus Severus Potter, right?" he asked.

"I'm Rose," she answered. She couldn't help but wonder if it would be smart to stay away from this boy - after all, her father had warned her against him, and she usually obeyed what her parents said. She decided, however, that her mother's comment of 'don't turn them against each other' negated her father's warning, and that she was free to socialize with Scorpius.

"It's Al, not Albus. Only my parents call me that." Al's father was the only one who liked the name Albus Severus. Everybody else had mixed feelings about it, and often these feelings leaned toward dislike. Aunt Ginny occasionally called Al 'Albus', in support of her husband, but nobody else did. Rose knew that Al was planning to convert all the teachers into calling him Al instead of Albus, although she didn't know how much luck he'd have with that.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Scorpius groaned. "Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. I'm not totally sure which is worse."

"My middle name is Nymphadora," Rose contributed, pulling a face. She knew that her middle name was Teddy's mother's first name, but just like Teddy's mother, she found it an extremely long and stupid name. She understood the idea behind it, to honor Teddy's mother - the same reason Hugo's middle name was Colin - but Nymphadora was an ugly name no matter how she looked at it.

"What about you, got a stupid name?" Scorpius asked the girl, nudging her slightly.

"Leda Cassiopeia Lestrange." She ignored the shocked expressions on the other three's faces. "I think yours are worse. Although Cassiopeia has to go - I wish it was Cassandra; at least that's kind of pretty."

"Lestrange? I thought...I thought there were no more of you," Rose said. She was by no means an expert on the pureblood families, but she knew that Bellatrix Lestrange had died during the Battle of Hogwarts - due to Rose's grandmother, actually - and Rodolphus and Rabastan had both been sent to Azkaban.

"Most people think that." Leda smirked. "Can't wait to show them otherwise, at the Sorting."

"But...how is that possible?" Al asked. "If Bellatrix Lestrange died in 1997...who's your mother?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange had a daughter, Sarin - she was two years above your parents in school. My mother is Sarin Lestrange, my father Ryan Yaxley. Yes, my parents are both Death Eaters' children. Anyway, my name is technically Leda Yaxley-Lestrange, but I think just Leda Lestrange sounds a lot better. A little more...intimidating."

"Um...I don't want to be rude..." Al paused. "But you're not a Death Eater, right?"

Leda snorted. "I'm not even sure how that would be possible, considering the Dark Lord - who created the Death Eaters - died several years before I was even born. And I'm pretty sure that eleven-year-olds aren't accepted, anyway."

"So will you be in Slytherin?" Scorpius asked.

"Of course. My family has been in Slytherin for generations, and I'm going to follow in their footsteps, of course. I'm guessing, with a name like Malfoy, you will be also." She looked at Rose and Al critically. "Technically, you lot should be Gryffindors."

"Half of my cousins are in Ravenclaw," Rose replied. "And my aunt's a Hufflepuff. But yeah, most of my family is in Gryffindor. I'm not very sure what I'll get, though. _Hogwarts, A History_ says-" Al groaned, and Rose rolled her eyes. "What? So I like that book."

"I tried to read it so that I knew exactly what to expect from Hogwarts. But I felt that if I didn't put it down, I'd die of boredom." Leda glanced at Rose. "Why are you in your Hogwarts robes already?"

"I wanted to be ready. Unlike the rest of you, who are going to have to rush at the last second to get changed."

"It won't be the last second. It'll be the last five minutes," Leda quipped.

The door opened suddenly, and a woman poked her head in. "Anything from the trolley, dears?"

"Hmm..." Scorpius stood up. "Eight Chocolate Frogs, four packs of Bertie Bott's, four Pumpkin Pasties, four Cauldron Cakes, and eight Liquorice Wands." He smiled innocently at the woman and handed her some money. "That'll be all."

"You don't have to-" Rose stood up, digging in her own pocket for money.

"Seriously? Heir to the Malfoy fortune right here. I'm sure...whatever that cost...doesn't even matter." He took the change without looking. Leda helped him bring the food into the compartment, and began dividing it up. Her method of 'dividing it up' meant throwing it in the general direction of the person whom it belonged to. "Just sit down and eat. I got enough for everybody."

"Obviously," Leda drawled. "If this was all for you, well, you'd be a lot fatter."

Al cracked a smile, biting the head off one of his Chocolate Frogs. "So what classes are you looking forward to, then? I don't know what I'd like, really."

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Leda said instantly. "I heard that's a good class. Now that the teacher isn't changing every single year, anyway." It was common knowledge that for decades, the DADA teacher had changed every year due to a curse that Voldemort put on the position. With him dead now, the curse had been lifted, and the teachers could stay for as long as they wanted to.

"Who's the current teacher?" Scorpius asked. "Does anybody know?"

"Yeah. Molly told me that it's a woman named Morag MacDougal. All my cousins who've taken it with her have said that she's definitely a good teacher," Rose said. "She was in Ravenclaw when she was at Hogwarts - and she was in my parents' year, but they didn't know her very well."

"I'm guessing Molly is one of your numerous relatives?" Leda asked.

"Yep." Rose nodded in confirmation. "She's a year older than me. You know, if you hang around Al and I for long enough, you'll learn the entire Weasley-Potter family tree!"

"Exciting. And if you hang around Scorpius and me for a while, you'll learn the entire Black family tree. Which, I might add, is just as large."

"That's not possible."

"We go further back," the dark-haired girl replied. "Hundreds of years. So Weasleys may reproduce like rabbits, but there's definitely more of the Blacks." She glanced at Scorpius. "We're cousins, you know. Kind of funny...we don't look anything alike. Even less than you two." It was true. Although the slightest resemblance could be seen in Rose and Al - slight, yes, but it was there - there was nothing to imply that Leda and Scorpius were related. Leda was tall and wiry, with curly dark hair and dark eyes. Scorpius was average height and weight, with light blond hair and grey eyes.

"That's the Malfoy part of the family, I guess," Scorpius said, chewing on a Liquorice Wand. "Anyway, back to the classes thing - I can't wait for flying lessons. My dad already taught me how to use a broom, so those lessons will be awesome. I want to make the Quidditch team next year."

"As a second-year?" Rose couldn't help but look skeptical. "Are you that good?"

"Yes," he replied confidently.

"What position do you play?"

"Chaser." He looked at Al. "You'd probably be a Seeker. You're small enough for it, that's for sure, and plus your dad was a Seeker, too."

"I play Seeker. When my whole family gets together, we have a game, and I'm usually Seeker." Rose couldn't help but notice Al didn't mention one key factor - Lily usually played Seeker on the opposing team, and she was just as good, if not better, than Al. It didn't surprise her, though, that Al didn't say anything about how his little sister could equal him on a broom. That, surely, would have been embarrassing. Al wasn't a bad flier, but he certainly didn't have the natural talent of his father.

The time on the Hogwarts Express passed by quickly for the four eleven-year-olds, despite the fact that they were on the train for many hours. A friendship had been formed between them, and they spent the whole time in that compartment with one another. Rose was expecting one of her numerous cousins to burst in at any time -after all, there was six other people related to her on this train - but they were left alone the whole time. Apparently her cousins were catching up with their Hogwarts friends, which didn't particularly surprise her.

Apart from the trolley woman, nobody else stopped into their compartment, at least not until it was dark outside. Rose was looking out the window and trying to estimate what time it was when a boy, a few years older than them, opened the door. "You should probably change into your Hogwarts robes now," the boy said, adjusting his prefect badge. "We'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Can't wait!" Rose said excitedly. The other three just looked at her, and she shrugged. "What? So I like school...why do I have to explain this to everybody?"

"Ravenclaw, for sure," Leda muttered to Scorpius.

"Stop talking and start dressing."

The last twenty minutes passed by quickly, and before they knew it, the train had come to a stop. Another prefect, this one from Hufflepuff, poked her head in and told them to leave all their trunks on the train, as they would be brought up to the dormitories after the Sorting. Directly after that, everybody disembarked.

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**Thanks for reading! I thought I'd do something original by adding a fourth person to the friendship of Rose, Al, and Scorpius, since I really don't want to make this too cliche. So Leda's the daughter of Bellatrix's daughter Sarin - if you want to know a bit more about that, I have a fic titled 'Sarin Lestrange and the Triwizard Tournament'. It's a little AU, but it introduces who Sarin and Ryan (Leda's father) are. Anyway, thanks for all the favorites and alerts, and please review!**


	3. The Sorting Ceremony

Right after the students disembarked the train, they began splitting up as groups of older students climbed into the thestral-pulled carriages. Rose, Al, Scorpius, and Leda stood there for a moment, unsure what to do. Rose could see other first years doing the same thing; none of them appeared to know what to do either. Only a minute or so passed, however, before a voice called out, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" and a lantern bobbed into view. The man carrying the lantern - Rubeus Hagrid, Rose knew, as she had met him a few times - repeated his call, and steadily the first years trickled over to him until they were assembled in a large group.

He led them down a small path, holding the lantern up to provide some light. Because of his height - he must have been over ten feet tall, she guessed, although it was hard to be certain - everybody could easily see the lantern, but it didn't provide a whole lot of light, especially for the people in the back of the group. It was already dark out, and there were several exclamations as people bumped into one another and tripped. The walk was not long, however, and soon they reached the lake, getting their first unobstructed view of the school.

It was magnificent, stretching high above them. It would have been even more impressive during the day, but it was still visible here, and several of the students audibly gasped in amazement. Rose had been there before, as had most of the other pureblood and half-blood students; the Battle of Hogwarts memorial took place every May, and usually, adults took their children. It wasn't the same, though; all the other times she had been to it just for the memorial, where now, she was going to Hogwarts as her actual school. There was a big difference.

"We'll be crossin' the lake on boats," Hagrid said. "Four firs' years to a boat." He took up one whole boat himself, the one in the very front, and everybody else piled in. Rose and the three others climbed into a boat, and as soon as all the students had found a boat and sat down, they started moving across the lake.

"So is it true there's a giant squid in there?" Al asked, peering over the side.

"Yes. If you had read _Hogwarts, A History, _you would have known that," Rose answered, causing the other three to roll their eyes.

"That book is boring," Leda said. "I have no idea how you could finish that. Not to mention it's about two thousand pages."

"It's not two thousand," she replied. "It's fifteen hundred pages. Which is still a lot, I suppose."

"Good thing none of our textbooks are that long," Scorpius muttered.

The journey across the lake did not take very long, either, as the boats moved rather quickly, and soon, the first years were climbing out. This process took slightly more time, as they were afraid of falling into the water, and many of them needed a hand up, but within a few minutes, all the eleven-year-olds were once again standing on solid ground. Hagrid led them down another path and into the school itself, into an area that was obviously meant just for waiting, as there was no furniture or anything to do or look at, except for a door.

A man came out of this door, and Rose recognized him as well. Neville Longbottom occasionally dropped by to see her parents, or Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, and he was invited to all of the Weasley-Potter family gatherings, although he couldn't always attend every single one of them. She knew he was the Head of Gryffindor House, in addition to being the Herbology teacher, and he was also in charge of greeting the new students before their Sorting. "All right," he said. "In a couple minutes, you'll all be Sorted into one of four Houses - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. While you're here at Hogwarts, your House will be like your family. You'll get the opportunity to earn points for your House, and also lose points for your House. When you've been Sorted into your House, you will go and sit down at that particular table." He left the room, leaving the first years alone again.

Chatter started up amongst the students. Several of them looked quite nervous; Rose figured that they were Muggle-born students who didn't know what to expect. Others looked overconfident - Leda and Scorpius being some of them - as they knew exactly what was going to happen, and what House they would be Sorted into. Rose and Al were in-between; they knew about Hogwarts, and had since a very young age, but neither one was completely sure of where they would end up.

It wasn't very long before Neville - Rose couldn't help but think of him as 'Neville', despite the fact that he would have to be 'Professor Longbottom' at Hogwarts - arrived back. "Follow me," he said, gesturing for them to come forward, and they stepped into the Great Hall. The ceiling above them looked like the night sky, as it had been enchanted to mirror the outside sky, so that it appeared there was no roof above them. The House tables stretched out before the first years, and Rose caught a glimpse of her cousins for the first time that day - Victoire, Dominique, and Molly at the Ravenclaw table, while Freddie, James (the only older cousin she had seen that day), and Roxanne sat at the Gryffindor table.

An old hat sat on a stool right in front of the staff table. It didn't look like much, and in fact, looked quite old and mangy, with several patched places, but Rose knew of its importance. Not only was this the Sorting Hat, but this was also where the Sword of Gryffindor had appeared from twice - once for her Uncle Harry, in the Chamber of Secrets, and once for Neville at the Battle of Hogwarts. This had been Godric Gryffindor's hat, and, Rose thought, considering this hat was about a thousand years old, it was actually in pretty good shape. The hat suddenly began to sing.

_I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat; _

_My job deals just with you._

_I choose the House where you belong, _

_And that's just what I do._

_You should know; there are four_

_Houses where you may go_

_Each has different qualities;_

_I'll tell you what I know:_

_Slytherin House prides itself_

_On cunning and ambition_

_Rowena Ravenclaw much preferred_

_Learning, wisdom, cognition._

_Brave Gryffindor is for those who_

_Are chivalrous and bold_

_Dear Hufflepuffs, they work so hard!_

_Their colors - black and gold._

_You may not know where you belong_

_But I most certainly do!_

_Step right up and try me on_

_I'll choose the house for you!_

The Hat fell silent again, and Neville - Professor Longbottom, Rose reminded herself - held up a piece of parchment and read the first name on it. "Abercrombie, Patricia!" he called, and a slightly chubby girl detached herself from the group of students and sat on the stool. The Hat was placed on her head, and it took barely ten seconds before it Sorted her.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" it called out, and Patricia hopped down from the stool and headed over to the Hufflepuff table, which had erupted in applause.

The next person to be Sorted - Isabella Aberdeen - went to Ravenclaw, and the girl after that - Hannah Beaurier - went to Gryffindor. The first boy who was Sorted, Ryan Clement, went to Hufflepuff after almost a minute's deliberation by the Hat. Rose could feel herself getting hungry, and she couldn't help but notice several of the older students who had the same problem, as they were longingly staring at the table as if food would just appear on it based on their gazes.

Scorpius was the first one out of the four of them to be Sorted. "Malfoy, Scorpius!" Professor Longbottom called, placing the Hat upon the blond boy's head when he had sat down upon the stool. The hat paused for a little while, perhaps half a minute, before finally calling out its choice.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Beside Rose, Leda breathed a sigh of relief, and the Sorting continued. A few people were Sorted after Scorpius, and then Professor Longbottom's voice could be heard clearly saying, "Potter, Albus!" The Hall literally fell silent; Rose was sure that if a pin dropped, anybody would be able to hear it. Everybody was curious to see where the second Potter boy would end up - if he would be a Gryffindor like his brother, Ravenclaw like his cousins, or the first Hufflepuff or Slytherin in the Weasley-Potter family.

Al quietly made his way up to the stool, and the Sorting Hat was placed on his head. It didn't Sort him immediately; he was not one of those people who only sat under the Hat for half a second. He wasn't under there for a really long time, either, though, and before even a minute could pass, the Hat shouted its choice to the whole Great Hall.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Al smiled at Rose and Leda as he slid off the stool and made his way to the Hufflepuffs' table, sitting down next to Ryan, Patricia, and a couple other first years. They couldn't have too much of a conversation, however, as the Sorting ceremony was still occurring, and students were supposed to be relatively quiet. Many of the older students broke this rule, but first years were generally a tad more cautious.

There was a much larger gap between Al and Rose than there had been between Scorpius and Al. Several more students were Sorted, and then finally, Professor Longbottom was saying, "Weasley, Rose," and she made her way up to the stool, carefully pulling herself up on it. She wasn't particularly tall, and her feet barely brushed the floor. The hat was placed on her head, and she jumped slightly as it talked into her mind.

_Yet another Weasley, hmm? There is quite a lot of you, I've noticed. _

_'_Um, I suppose', Rose thought back, wondering if other students had made conversation with the hat in this manner.

_You're not as easy to Sort as some of them. You're courageous, a hard worker, ambitious, and have a thirst for learning. You have traits of all the four Houses, and I could probably Sort you into any one of them. However, one House fits you better than the others. Which is why I'm going to put you in RAVENCLAW!_

The hat yelled the last word for the whole House to hear. Rose slid off the stool as Professor Longbottom removed the Hat from her head, and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, sliding into a spot between Nina Goldstein, another first year, and her cousin Molly, a second year.

"I'm not surprised," Molly said. "You're definitely Ravenclaw material."

"I've been told," Rose answered, thinking of her conversation with the others on the train, when Leda and Scorpius had decided she was Ravenclaw-like because she was excited about school and able to read through _Hogwarts, A History. _

Rose turned her attention back to the Sorting. A few more people were Sorted - Mirasol Winters and Alicia Wood were Sorted back-to-back into Gryffindor, while Ling Xi joined the others at the Ravenclaw table. There was a moment's pause, and Rose glanced at Professor Longbottom, who stared at the parchment, then at the two students left to Sort - Leda and one other girl, who kept adjusting her glasses. Finally, Professor Longbottom said, his voice slightly more quiet than usual, "Yaxley-Lestrange, Leda."

"Lestrange," Leda answered.

"Excuse me?"

"I go by Leda Lestrange."

Professor Longbottom looked as if he didn't know what to say, but he decided on, "All right. Um, can you come up to be Sorted now?"

"Sure." Leda climbed up and hopped on the stool; a couple older students chuckled at the situation, which was probably a welcome break from the normal Sorting's monotony.

The hat yelled, "SLYTHERIN!" without being on Leda's head any more than ten seconds, and she jumped off the stool, handing the Hat back to Professor Longbottom and sauntering over to the Slytherin table, which was cheering quite raucously. The last girl - Veronica Yeats - joined Ravenclaw, and the Sorting ceremony was complete.

* * *

**Hufflepuff!Al is definitely a little different, I know, but I really think that's the best place for him, as I don't see him fitting into Gryffindor, Slytherin, or Ravenclaw very well, at least in my characterization of him. Anyway, now that Rose and her friends have finally been Sorted, the story should get a bit more interesting. Oh, and I just wanted to let everybody know of one thing - chapters will be posted between once and twice a week. I don't have a strict schedule, per se, so I can't say exactly when they'll be up, but updates will be relatively frequent.**

**Thanks to those of you who have favorited and/or alerted this! And to everybody, please review, I'd love to hear what you think of it so far!**


	4. The Start Of Something

As soon as the Sorting ceremony was complete, food appeared on the tables. Rose dug in heartily, as she had not eaten in several hours; the snacks that Scorpius had bought had been devoured pretty quickly, and the trolley had not come back around. All around her, the other Ravenclaw students were also almost-inhaling their food. There was conversation among a few people, but for the most part, many of the students were pretty quiet apart from the noises of chewing and clanking silverware. When the eating of the students had slowed to a near-stop, the woman seated in the middle of the staff table stood up, and all the students that had been talking fell silent.

"I am Professor Clearwater," the woman began. "I'm the Headmistress of this school, as most of you know. Now, all returning students should know the rules, but I'm going to quickly go over the basics for you first years, so that way you can't get in trouble and use 'I didn't know' as an excuse." Rose sneaked a glance at her cousin Roxanne, who had used that line the previous year, along with James. The two of them, seated at the Gryffindor table, high-fived, although Professor Clearwater pretended to ignore them. "Students are not allowed to be out of their common rooms and dormitories after curfew. Any products from Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes will be confiscated if found. Students are not allowed to go into the Forbidden Forest unless a teacher accompanies them."

She paused a moment for breath before continuing. "Students may not hex, jinx, or curse each other. Spell use is prohibited in the corridors. And obviously, students who are late to class, talk back to a professor, or do not do the work set for them will be punished. Also, prefects must be respected, and treated with the same courtesy that you would a professor, as the prefects report back to us if anything unusual happened. Anyway, I welcome you all to Hogwarts, and if the fifth year prefects would kindly escort the first years up to their common rooms?" She sat down again.

The Ravenclaw first years gathered in a little group as the two fifth year prefects came over to them. One of them was the boy who had told Rose and her friends to change into their Hogwarts robes on the train, and the other was her cousin Dominique. "All right," Dominique said. "I'm Dominique Weasley, and this is Patrick Tomlinson. Follow us, we'll show you to the Ravenclaw common room."

"Welcome to Ravenclaw," Patrick said, gesturing for them to follow as he and Dominique started walking. The first years trotted along behind them, talking amongst themselves. Rose found herself next to the girl who had been Sorted last, Veronica Yeats. Veronica was a small, slender, dainty-looking girl even shorter than petite Rose.

"Hi," Rose said, a little shyly. She hadn't interacted with too many people who weren't related to her. There was Leda and Scorpius, of course, but she wouldn't say that she was an expert at making friends quite yet. She still felt a little awkward and nervous, although she was excited about being at Hogwarts.

"Hello," Veronica said primly. "I'm Veronica Yeats. Although you probably know that because of the Sorting."

Rose nodded. "I'm Rose Weasley."

"Yes, I remember. I'm very curious about one thing, though. You were with your cousin, I know - Albus - but you were also standing next to a _Malfoy _and a _Lestrange, _and you seemed...comfortable with them, and you rode the boat with them." She made a disgusted face that involved wrinkling her button nose. "They're bad company to keep; as a Weasley, shouldn't you know that?"

Rose felt a flash of annoyance, but before she could say anything, a tall blonde girl stepped to Rose's other side, glaring at Veronica. "Are you implying that just because they're pureblood Slytherins, they're bad company? My mother was in Slytherin, you know. Not to mention that it's that sort of prejudiced attitude that caused a bloody war, twice!"

"The war was caused by people who were Slytherins," Veronica responded prissily. "So there's proof that they are bad company."

"Leda and Scorpius weren't even born then," Rose protested. "And just because their families were in Slytherin, and took part in the wars, doesn't mean that they would." She felt a little nervous arguing, but she also thought that she should defend her new friends, since they weren't there.

"Exactly!" the blonde girl said, gesturing to Rose. "See, this girl right here should probably hate Slytherins because of who her parents are, but she doesn't, because she knows that they aren't all evil!"

Rose thought the conversation probably would have gone on further, but at that point, they had reached Ravenclaw Tower, and Dominique had pressed her finger to her lips in the universal 'shh' sign. "The Ravenclaw door is not protected by a password, like the other three houses, but rather, by a riddle," the blonde Weasley said. "The door can only be opened by answering the riddle properly; if you cannot answer it, then you'll have to wait for somebody else who can to let you in. Don't worry if you get it wrong once in a while; we all have." She rapped the knocker.

A voice, seemingly coming from the door-knocker, said, "Give me food, and I will live. But give me water; I will die."

Dominique and Patrick both nodded at the same time as they understood the riddle. They did not answer it, however. "This isn't extremely difficult," Patrick said. "Can one of you try to answer it?"

"The answer is fire," a short Asian boy, whose name Rose remembered as Ling, said quietly. The door swung open, and they piled into the Ravenclaw common room. There were bookcases and tables taking up a lot of the spaces; there were several types of chairs, some cushy and comfortable, others - the ones at the tables - wooden. It was a bit cramped, perhaps, with all the furniture, and she couldn't imagine what it would be like when it was full of people, but it was nice and cozy.

"Girls' dormitories on the left, boys' on the right," Dominique said, gesturing up a stairwell, past a bust of Rowena Ravenclaw. "Your trunks should already be up there, so you might want to go up and get settled. It's getting rather late, anyway, and breakfast is at eight, so you should probably get to bed early." She adjusted her hair, which was pulled back in a tight ponytail. "Go on," she said, and the first years hurried upstairs, dividing into boys and girls as they slipped into their dormitories.

Once the girls had all claimed their respective beds, they got down to the process of introducing one another. Rose had already introduced herself to Veronica Yeats, who was still glaring daggers at the tall blonde girl, whose name was Allison Dagworth. Isabella Aberdeen, a Muggle-born who had read her textbooks almost obsessively before arriving, they learned, was a plain-looking brunette who wasn't surprised at all at her Sorting. Lastly, Nina Goldstein seemed loud, almost more of a Gryffindor than a Ravenclaw, although she promptly proved why she was Sorted into Ravenclaw when she pulled the History of Magic textbook from her trunk and began reading it.

Overall, Rose thought, the other girls seemed nice enough. Veronica seemed stuck-up and a little irritating, but not horrible, and she didn't have a problem with the others, at least not yet. It was a good feeling to have all these people that she liked who weren't related to her, and so far, she thought, she really liked Hogwarts. It was with those thoughts that she fell asleep that night, pleased at the good things that had happened already.

* * *

Getting up at seven o'clock wasn't particularly fun, she thought as she got dressed for breakfast the following morning. With five girls sharing one bathroom, it was a necessity to get up a full hour before they had to go downstairs. That didn't mean she really enjoyed it, however. She wasn't much of a morning person - nobody in their family apart from Dominique and Molly actually was - and she trudged downstairs a little grumpily with the rest of the girls. They almost got lost finding the Great Hall, but thankfully they were able to follow a third year (who, for the record, had no idea that five first year Ravenclaw girls were tailing him) all the way down.

She waved to Leda and Scorpius at the Slytherin table, and Al at the Hufflepuff table, as she sat down with the other girls. The prefects passed out schedules as the students ate, and Rose promptly looked at hers, curious to see what classes she had that day. At nine o'clock they had Herbology, then Defense Against the Dark Arts, then History of Magic, then lunch. After lunch was Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions. Every Wednesday there was an Astronomy class at midnight.

She'd share most of her classes with Al, she noted, as Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs shared all classes except for Herbology, which was Gryffindor/Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw/Slytherin. Which meant that was the one class she'd share with Leda and Scorpius. She wished it was a bit more evenly divided; it would have been nice to spend a little more time with her new friends, but at least they had one class together. Al didn't have any classes with Leda and Scorpius. That would change, of course, when third year came; since the students had to choose electives, all four houses shared the same elective times because there was less students per class.

"I don't like the idea of Herbology," Veronica said disdainfully to nobody in particular. "It sounds very dirty, and I don't enjoy getting dirt all over myself." She made the same disgusted face that she had when talking about Slytherins the previous night.

"I think History of Magic sounds interesting," Nina said. "I heard it sucks, though, because the professor - Binns - is a ghost and has this really boring voice that makes everybody drowsy."

"At least in History of Magic we don't have to work with our hands," Veronica said.

"Herbology sounds better than History of Magic," Allison jumped in. "What about you, Rose? Herbology or History?"

"Herbology," Rose replied. "I know the professor, actually. Neville Longbottom is one of my parents' friends. Besides, my mum was the only student in her year who could actually pay attention during Binns' classes." Rose had read a little of her History of Magic textbook, and while some of the information could actually be classified as interesting, the way that the professor presented it was sure to be boring. Rose's mum had said that even some of the Ravenclaws had trouble staying awake during History of Magic classes. Isabella, who was engrossed in a book, didn't look up at all, at least until an owl landed in front of her bearing the _Daily Prophet._ She slipped a Knut into its pouch, but kept the newspaper on the table, not reading it. "Hey, mind if I look at this?" Rose asked her.

"Go ahead."

"Thanks." Rose picked it up. She was a little curious about if they had printed anything about her and Al going to Hogwarts; they had done that when it was James' first year, and she couldn't resist checking. To her surprise, though, there was a much darker story on the first page.

_DANGEROUS RUMORS SPREADING AS MUGGLE-BORN ATTACKS CONTINUE_

_Over the past month, there have been two separate occurrences of Muggle-borns being killed. The first victim, Lola Cruz, was killed on August 10th in her own home, while she was alone preparing supper. The second murder, which was that of Jon Bernhardt, happened on August 24th, and he was also killed while he was alone at home. Both of the victims appeared to have put up a struggle, as there was evidence of a duel in both places. The murders are thought to be connected, due to the similar circumstances, although it cannot be definite without proof._

_The problem in this situation lies not only with the murder of innocent people, but the possibility of hysteria. Many years ago, the man calling himself 'Lord Voldemort' and his followers the Death Eaters got their start in much the same way. With two killings in approximately two weeks, which, according to the Auror Office, is not a very long time, then the chances of people thinking that new Dark forces are rising increases, and the rumors will continue increasing as long as the attacks continue._

_We advise people to keep calm, as well as always having their wand nearby, and, especially for those who are Muggle-born, not to go places by themselves or stay home alone for long periods of time. More on this story will be printed as new details are released from the Auror Office._

Rose set the newspaper down. "Merlin," she said, spreading it across so that her roommates could see this. "I really do hope that it's just one person, and not a whole gang of people like the Death Eaters."

"Agreed," Nina said, stuffing half a piece of toast in her mouth. "I couldn't imagine if there really was some gang of lunatics like the Death Eaters. I mean, look at what our parents had to deal with while they were in school. I'd hate to have to deal with all that."

"Yeah," Rose said, nodding. "Hopefully it's just one person, and the Aurors catch him soon." She stood up. "We really should head to class." The other Ravenclaws agreed, and the ten first years, all in one group, headed off to Herbology together for their first class at Hogwarts

* * *

**All right, so I thought it was necessary to introduce Rose's roommates, as they'll be mentioned several times throughout the course of this series. And, well, that turned out to be longer than I originally intended, so I decided to start adding the Dark forces plot thread now as well. Of course, that won't come into play for a little while...but you'll just have to keep reading to find out, won't you? **

**Thanks for reading, and please continue to review!**


	5. The First Day

Herbology was not extremely interesting, Rose quickly found. Some of that was probably due to the fact that it was their first day, and Professor Longbottom spent most of the time discussing the uses of magical plants, the necessity of Herbology as a subject, and a couple regulations about having a magical garden. Rose sat with Leda, while Scorpius and one of his roommates sat behind them. It was nice that they were together, as it meant that despite their different houses, they could still be friends, but it would have been nicer if they were actually able to have a conversation. According to her older cousins, they would have more practical lessons in Herbology where they did get to talk, but this was not one of those lessons.

After Herbology, Rose practically ran up to the castle in order to get to Defense Against the Dark Arts on time. She had left her book in her dormitory, and as a result, she was tearing through the hallways as fast as she could. Which wasn't particularly fast, she knew - even Lily beat her at running, and Lily was two years younger - but had she been walking at a normal speed, the chances of her being late were much greater. Thankfully there were no teachers around, as they were all in class, and although there were a few prefects, they didn't pay her a whole lot of attention as they were heading to class as well.

She slid into her seat just as Professor MacDougal, a woman who looked to be about her parents' age, started taking attendance. The professor didn't look thrilled at Rose's near-lateness, but didn't say anything, and she breathed a sigh of relief that she had gotten away with it. Al raised his eyebrows as he looked at her, obviously wondering what had happened, but due to their classroom setting she wasn't able to tell him. "Now," the woman said, "you are all here to learn about Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am your teacher, Morag MacDougal. I was an Auror for almost fifteen years before I started teaching here, so I do have a lot of experience."

"You don't look that old," Nina Goldstein called out.

"I was accepted into the Auror program right out of school. The Ministry of Magic had a sharp decline in the number of Aurors because of Voldemort's reign, so they were willing to accept anybody of age who had a decent amount of skill, and who had participated in the Battle of Hogwarts." She glanced around the room. "The idea of Defense Against the Dark Arts," she said, launching right into the beginning of her lecture, "is to protect yourselves against anything that might be considered 'Dark', or evil. The first way to protect yourself is to always be alert. Clement, cover your eyes."

Rose twisted around in her seat, as did most of the other front row students, in order to see what was going to happen to Ryan Clement. The Hufflepuff covered his eyes, looking slightly nervous as he did so. "What is it, Professor?" he asked, voice trembling slightly.

"How many exits are there in this room?" she asked.

"Um...the door and two windows makes three exits."

"Wrong. Yes, there is the door and two windows - you can uncover your eyes now - but is the window really an escape for any of you? Is there a broom hidden somewhere in this room, or do you know how to perform a Featherlight Charm that would allow you to drop to the ground without being harmed? No. So for you students, there is only one exit. I could use the windows, as I can perform a Featherlight Charm or could Summon a broom, but none of you can do that, at least not at this point in time."

"Oh." Ryan Clement's cheeks were tinged slightly pink. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It's a common mistake. Some people made mistakes worse than that in Auror training, and this is seventeen- to twenty-year-olds we're talking about. Now..." She paused, surveying the room. "Potter, cover your eyes." Al looked even more nervous than Ryan had; he was used to people quizzing him because of who his father was. When he had been in Diagon Alley to get his schoolbooks and wand, somebody had asked him to perform _Expelliarmus, _his father's signature spell, despite the fact that Al had only had his wand for about an hour. "Who is sitting directly behind you?"

"I don't know names," he said quietly. "But she's a Ravenclaw, kind of tall, with short-ish blonde hair."

"Good." Professor MacDougal nodded approvingly. "Allison Dagworth, by the way, but that's not important. What's important is that you noticed who it was. Knowing who - or what, in other cases - is behind you is the most important, since you can't see that way, and you are most vulnerable to attack from behind. If you don't know who's behind you, and you were in a dangerous situation, you could end up in big trouble. Uncover your eyes."

The lesson continued in much the same way, although not all the students got a chance to be questioned. Rose was one of the ones who wasn't asked anything, and she was slightly disappointed, although she did realize that, as a rather not-alert person, she'd probably fail worse than Clement had. She was easily engrossed in things, and rarely paid attention to details. Once Professor MacDougal had asked a significant amount of questions, she proceeded to introduce what they'd be covering that year - a basic overview of some simple Dark creatures and spells - and then dismissed them before the official class time was up.

History of Magic, the next class, was, by far, the least interesting time of Rose's whole life. Although some of the material was actually interesting, if she read it in her book, the professor was not. Cuthbert Binns was a ghost, but still was teaching History of Magic as he had been one of the leading magical historians when he was alive. Rose couldn't deny that he was obviously knowledgeable, but his dull voice and the way he presented the information made her nearly doze off more than once. She barely managed to stay awake, taking a few notes, while the other students seemed to have similar problems.

"I'm totally getting all my information from the book," Nina commented as they left the room. "When there's tests and other stuff like that. No way I can take notes in that yawn-inducing class."

"It was kind of boring," Rose agreed, stuffing her parchment - which only had about ten sentences of notes on it - into her bag. "At least Defense was good."

"Yeah, it was," Allison said, jumping into the conversation from Nina's other side. "I wonder what the other classes will be like."

None of the other classes were particularly interesting, at least not on the first day, the first years quickly found. In Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions, the three professors talked about what they would be doing this year along with some basic theory. There was no actual magic performed, nor did they make a potion. As a result, they went out of their last class feeling rather bored, although relieved - they didn't have any homework on the first day, due to the fact that they hadn't actually gone over very much. Rose knew that would change, however; the adults she knew had all mentioned that they had boatloads of homework almost all the time.

She caught up with Al as they left the dungeons. "Hey."

"Hey, Rose. What did you think of classes?"

"Defense was good," she admitted, "but nothing else really was. I think it'll get better when we actually get to do things, rather than just listening to the teacher talk about what we'll be doing later on in the year."

"True." Al nodded. "You saw Leda and Scorpius in Herbology, right?"

"Yeah. Wanna see if they can go hang out in the library or something?"

"Sure. I don't know their schedule, though."

"Defense is the last class for them," she said. Although the girls hadn't managed to talk, Rose had caught an accidental glimpse of Leda's schedule. "If we hurry, they might still be in the area."

For the second time that day, Rose jogged through the corridors, although this time, Al was by her side. He was faster than her - most people were, if she was honest with herself - but he kept nearby, only running a few feet ahead of her. They reached the Defense classroom, which was empty except for Professor MacDougal, but various Gryffindors and Slytherins were still milling around the area. They managed to find the two Slytherins relatively easily. "Hey," Leda said, as Scorpius mumbled a greeting. "He's sulking," she smirked, "because MacDougal called on him and he embarrassed himself."

"I did not!" Scorpius protested. "I just..."

"She asked you to describe the person behind you, and you said the person behind you was 'kind of fat'. I'm pretty sure that counts as embarrassing yourself."

"What was I supposed to say? She was fat!"

"Other than that, how were your classes?" Al asked, failing to contain his laughter.

"Stupid." Leda rolled her eyes. "Defense was decent, but everything else was just 'This is what we'll be doing this year'. I can't wait for _real _classes."

"Want to go to the library and talk or something?" Rose asked. "I can't think of anywhere else we can hang out, since we've got different common rooms."

"Outside," Scorpius said immediately. "It's September - it should be nice out. Plus, there's no chance of us getting in trouble if we get too loud."

"You've got a point," Rose admitted, although secretly she wished that everyone wanted to go to the library instead. She decided not to bring that up, however; they'd just say 'that's your Ravenclaw side talking' and make her go outside anyway. She followed the others outside, and they found a place to sit underneath a tree, its branches and leaves keeping most of the sun's glare away from them. "Did you see the front page of the _Daily Prophet?"_ she asked the others once they had all gotten comfortable.

"I don't read the Daily Rag," Leda said, repeating what she had on the train. "They never print anything important."

"I didn't see it," Scorpius said, and Al shook his head as well.

"There've been two Muggle-borns killed within two weeks," Rose said gravely. "And the Ministry's worried that people might think that there's new Dark forces."

"What if it is?" Leda asked. "I mean, that's how the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters got their start, by killing off Mud - Muggle-borns." Rose noticed Leda's slip, but didn't say anything about it. At least the Slytherin had corrected herself. "There could be a chance that something like that's going to happen again. It's been peaceful for, what, twenty years? With nothing weird happening?"

"If it is new Dark forces, my dad will catch them," Al said, trying to sound confident. Rose wasn't so sure, however. There was no denying that her Uncle Harry was a brilliant wizard who had brought down Voldemort. That didn't mean that the same thing would happen in this instance, though. After all, Voldemort had been directly after Uncle Harry. For all they knew, these people could be extremely cautious and sneaky.

"At least we'll be safe here at Hogwarts," Scorpius said.

Rose couldn't help but think of all the things that had happened at Hogwarts during her parents' time there, and thought, '_Don't be so sure'._

* * *

**Thanks for reading! The next chapter - which, as always, will be published within a few days - will contain something a lot more interesting. From here, the story will start to pick up now that I've introduced everything that I need to. Also, I promise that the characters of Leda, Scorpius, and Al will become just as developed as Rose's. Since this is focused on her, it's sometimes difficult to characterize the others as well, but I'll definitely be able to do more of that coming up. Again, thanks for reading and please review!**


	6. Halloween

The next several weeks passed relatively quickly for Rose. Classes got more interesting, as they actually began practical work as opposed to listening to lectures. History of Magic remained boring, and Rose wasn't very keen on Astronomy, as she was always twice as tired the next morning, but overall, she enjoyed school. She wasn't the best in her class when it came to actually performing spells, but she knew the theories better than almost anyone, although occasionally Isabella or Ling gave her a run for her money. Leda proved to be just the opposite, for although Rose didn't share anything but Herbology with the Slytherins, Leda was constantly showing off her ability to levitate things and perform other simple spells when the four of them met up together. Despite that, Leda struggled to get even a foot-long essay done.

Al and Scorpius were both relatively average, it seemed, although Rose often had to push them to actually get work done. The two of them were often playing Exploding Snap rather than doing any schoolwork, even when the four of them met up to get schoolwork done. It was very good for them to work together, she found, as Rose was the expert on theories and Leda was the expert on practical wand work. Scorpius had a talent for Potions, and Al for Herbology. It was a very good arrangement, they found, and they met up almost every day when they could.

"I can't believe it's Halloween already," Al said one day, leaning back on his chair as they took a break from reading for a few minutes. They were in one of the furthest corners of the library, right near the Restricted Section, and far away from the librarian, Madam Turpin, so they could have a conversation in peace as long as they weren't overly loud. "We've been at Hogwarts two whole months."

"Wow, you're a math genius," Leda quipped, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, there's a feast tonight - as good as the Opening Feast, I've heard."

"Awesome," Rose said. "Hogwarts has such good food - it's unfortunate that it's made by house-elves, but -"

"They _enjoy _working," Scorpius groaned. It wasn't the first time that Rose had mentioned the house-elves' so-called slave lifestyle. "My family has a house-elf, Tilly, and she absolutely loves serving us. And we treat her good," he added hastily, as Rose turned on him.

"All right, all right." Rose held her hands up in mock defense. "I'll stop for now." She grinned, but her mood quickly turned serious. "The _Prophet _printed another story this morning. There have been a few more Muggle-born deaths - three in October alone, and we heard about the two in September and the two in August - and another woman was attacked but managed to fight off whoever attacked. She's in St. Mungo's, though - got hit by some nasty curse. Nobody's sure exactly what it was, but they're able to treat it, thankfully."

"Leda," Al said innocently, "maybe they could invite your mum to check out the woman, see if she can identify the curse. I'm sure she knows all about Dark things like that, seeing who her parents were."

"Shut up, Albus Severus."

"Don't call me that!"

Rose and Scorpius exchanged a glance. Leda and Al loved to bait one another, and it was difficult for them to go a whole hour without some sort of insult. The funnier thing was, neither of them seemed to mind, per se - it was if they enjoyed arguing with one another. Many of their comments dealt with Leda's Dark family background or Al's unfortunate name, although there had been occasional variety.

"All right, you two," Rose said, shaking her head. "It's serious. The Auror Department doesn't even seem to have a lead, if what the _Prophet _says is true -"

"Which it usually isn't," Leda interrupted.

"It's not as bad as it was when our parents were at Hogwarts. Anyway, the Aurors have no idea what's going on. The people aren't leaving any clues behind - it's like they just barge in and kill."

"With an Avada." Leda continued.

"Huh?" Al looked clueless.

"You are kidding me," she exclaimed, banging her head down on the desk. "Can't you read? The killings have been going on for three bloody months, there've been loads of articles in the Rag - which Rose forces me to read - and you don't even know how the people have actually been killed?"

"Um."

The Slytherin glanced at Rose. "Was he born this idiotic, or was he dropped on his head?" Turning back to Al, she said, "The Killing Curse. The green light. Avada Kedavra. However the hell you want to say it - it's how the Muggle-borns have been killed. It doesn't leave a single mark. Don't you know the story of your own father, how he survived it as a baby?"

"Well, I know Voldemort tried to kill him, obviously, I just didn't know the exact method - it's not like my dad's going to teach me about Dark curses, like yours."

"My dad does not teach me about Dark curses!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot - that'd be your mum."

"You two do realize that it's time to go to the feast," Scorpius said calmly, interrupting them. "Where, thankfully, you will no longer be sitting together." Rose failed to hide a chuckle. "Come on, let's go."

They stood up, packing up their parchment, quills, and books, and headed to the Great Hall. There, they split up, heading to their respective House tables. Rose slid into a seat between Nina and Allison, and eventually, the tables were fully crowded with people, and Professor Clearwater stood up. "Welcome, everybody, to the Halloween Feast!" She gestured around her, to the decorations that were hung on the walls - jack o'lanterns, skeletons (hopefully fake, Rose thought), and cobwebs. She opened her mouth to say something more, but at that moment the doors burst open and Victoire, the oldest Weasley at Hogwarts, a seventh year, rushed in, panting.

"Somebody help!" she yelled. "Dominique was attacked!"

Murmurs began at all the tables as people started to speculate already. Rose wasn't doubting that rumors would begin to spread all over about who was responsible. Victoire looked as though she was about to hyperventilate, although Rose wasn't sure whether it was because her sister had been attacked or because she had obviously run a long way.

"Everybody calm down." Professor Clearwater's voice was strong. "Morag, please follow Miss Weasley." Professor MacDougal nodded and darted out from behind the staff table, hurrying over to Victoire. The two of them ran out of the Great Hall, the professor easily keeping up with the seventh year. Rose stared after them until the door shut. "We will continue with the feast, as obviously we cannot do anything until Morag returns and tells us what happened. After we finish eating I will release family first to go see Miss Weasley - family only, mind you."

"This is terrible," Molly, who was seated opposite Rose, said. "Who'd attack Dominique?"

Rose couldn't believe it either. Dominique was not the type of person to have a lot of enemies. She never played pranks on anybody like James and Roxanne - in fact, she disapproved of that sort of behavior. She was a very well-behaved person - everyone knew she was going to be Head Girl in seventh year - and top of her class, but she never rubbed it in anybody's face. She was just a pleasant person to be around, although sometimes she could be a tad boring at times. Rose couldn't think of any reason that she would have been attacked, however; it just didn't make any sense to her.

She didn't eat a lot, despite the fact that there was certainly a large amount of food. Normally she would have stuffed herself, eating more than some of the boys, but tonight she just didn't have that much of an appetite. Across from her, Molly was picking at her food as well, not saying a whole lot. None of the Weasley-Potters had ever been severely injured because of an attack. There had been occasional hexes - mainly James and Roxanne vs. various Slytherins - and one time Lily and Al had collided during a Quidditch game and both fallen, Lily landing on her brother, but never had any of them been severely injured by being attacked. This would be a first, and the fact that it coincided with constant Muggle-born killings didn't make Rose feel much better.

Once the students were done eating, Professor Clearwater stood up again. "I realize that you should already know this, but I feel that I still should say it. If any of you have any idea what happened to Dominique Weasley, please tell one of the professors here. Also, if there is anything suspicious that you happen to see, again, please report it. I would also advise you to be careful, always keep your wand nearby, and stay nearby other people. I don't want to induce paranoia, but I do want everybody to stay safe. Now, if the following people could please report to the Hospital Wing - Molly Weasley, Roxanne Weasley, James Potter, Albus Potter, Rose Weasley - you may go visit Miss Weasley. Nobody else is authorized to see her quite yet. Thank you. You may go."

Rose and Molly met up with the other three at the door. "I can't believe what happened to her," Roxanne said as they made their way to the Hospital Wing. "I mean, what did Dom ever do?"

"She's not the one who rigged a bucket of goo above the Slytherins' common room's exit, so that every time somebody leaves goo falls on their heads," James said, grinning. "That was Roxanne and I, so if they wanted to blame somebody -"

"That was you?" Leda snapped as she walked by them, promptly making a rude gesture towards James.

"Nice friend you've got there," Molly said offhandedly.

"Goo?" Al asked, bewildered. "Why?"

"Hello?" Roxanne said. "Forget the genius of James and I for a few minutes. What happened to Dominique?"

"Good question," Rose muttered, as they entered the Hospital Wing.

"All right, everybody," said the only adult in the Hospital Wing. Rose assumed that she was the school Healer, but, having never been in this area herself, she hadn't seen the woman before. "Don't stay too long, as it's getting late and Dominique needs to rest. I'll be over in my office -" she pointed to a door -"if you need me."

"Thanks," Molly said politely.

"You're welcome," the woman beamed, bustling towards the door.

"What happened to you?" James asked bluntly as they crowded around Dominique's bed. Victoire was sitting on a chair next to the bed, and picking at a small plate of food that must have been sent up for her, as she hadn't returned to the Great Hall. "Where's MacDougal, by the way?"

"She left," Victoire said, looking up. "She levitated Dominique here and as soon as Madam Macmillan said that she'd be fine, Professor MacDougal headed up to Professor Clearwater's office to wait for her - I guess they need to discuss what happened."

"How are you?" Rose asked Dominique, who was laying down on her back, covers pulled up to her neck, eyes fluttering open and shut.

"I'll be fine," the older girl said hoarsely. "I was attacked from behind, so I don't know what happened. I was Stunned at the top of a flight of stairs, and I fell down. It was a large one, too..." She paused and took a breath, wincing slightly. "I don't know why whoever it was attacked me...I don't know what I did."

"You didn't do anything," Roxanne said fiercely. "You never do. This is some jealous, probably-Slytherin idiot who thought it would be an amusing thing to tell his friends."

"What about the Muggle-born killings?" Molly asked suddenly, echoing the thought Rose had at the feast. "Do you think this has anything to do with that? If they have a supporter at Hogwarts, and because Dom's a Weasley -"

"This isn't the place to discuss it," Victoire said, and left it at that.

* * *

**And...it gets interesting! This chapter was really fun to write - the Leda-Al bickering is so amusing, haha - and now this story is really getting eventful. The next chapter should be pretty intriguing, too...but I'll leave you wondering about that until the next update. Please review, I'd love to hear what you think about this story and any theories about what you think will happen next...**


	7. The Note In Her Pocket

Rose and her other cousins finished telling Dominique how they hoped she'd be better soon, and were slowly trickling out when Dominique hoarsely called them back. "Come here," she said, making a feeble gesturing motion. They hurried back to her side as she pulled a piece of parchment out of the pocket of her robes. "This wasn't here before," she said quietly, unfolding it.

James, who was at the head of the bed, leaned over the blonde girl's shoulder so that he could read it. He began reading it out loud to the others, who could not see the words written upon the parchment. "This is a warning. I attacked the blood-traitor Dominique Weasley, as you obviously know by now, and I will continue to attack students unless my demand is met. The..." James' voice faltered at the next word. "Mu-Mudblood students must be removed from Hogwarts, as they do not belong here with real witches and wizards. If they are removed within the next week, I will not attack any more students. However, if they continue to reside here, I will attack both the Mu-Mudbloods and the blood-traitors until they are all either dead or severely injured, and only pureblood students remain."

"That's sick," Roxanne spat. Everybody else nodded in agreement. Rose's mind whirled. Somebody was going to attack students unless the Muggle-borns were shipped out? It was one of the most ridiculous things she had ever heard, and, coming from the Weasley-Potter family, she had heard several tales of stupid prejudice against those who weren't pureblood. She knew, also, that she and Al could come under attack if this person actually did what they said they would. Although Al was technically pureblood, by the loosest definition of the word, and she was half-blood, the Weasley-Potter family members were considered 'blood-traitors' by those who stuck to traditional pureblood values.

"Madam Macmillan," Molly said loudly. "Madam Macmillan, could you come here?"

The school Healer came out from her office. "What is it, dear?" She glanced at the piece of paper that Dominique was holding. "What is that?"

"It's a note," James said. "Dominique found it in her pocket. The person who Stunned her must have put it there, so that she'd find it when she woke up. It's...it's threatening." He slid it from Dominique's light grasp and handed it it to Madam Macmillan. Wordlessly she read it, her eyes widening as she got to the last line.

"This...oh, Merlin, Professor Clearwater needs to know about this." She glanced at Dominique, then back to the letter, obviously torn between leaving Dominique to tell the Headmistress about the letter, or staying with her patient. "Roxanne," she said, deciding what to do, "would you mind running up to the Headmistress' office and telling Professor Clearwater to come down here? The password to the office is -" She bent over and whispered something in Roxanne's ear -"all right? Just tell her that we found something and she needs to come to the Hospital Wing immediately."

Roxanne nodded. "All right." She darted off, faster than Rose could ever run, and Rose caught a glimpse of her excited expression. She hoped Professor Clearwater knew to change the password almost immediately, as she wouldn't put it past Roxanne and James to plan some sort of prank involving the office. She rolled her eyes at James, who adopted an innocent-looking expression as if he hadn't just been thinking about prank ideas.

It was only a few minutes, perhaps five or so, before Roxanne arrived with Professor Clearwater in tow. The headmistress didn't look too pleased at running through half of Hogwarts, and she was panting slightly, a sharp contrast to Roxanne, who didn't seem to have even been affected by the run. "What is it?" the headmistress asked, trying - and failing - to not sound out-of-breath. "What is that?" she repeated, gesturing to the letter. Madam Macmillan handed it to Professor Clearwater, who silently read it. "Merlin," she gasped when she finished.

"I know, right?" Roxanne said. "It's some crazy pureblood fanatic, obviously."

"It seems like something that would have happened while our parents were in school," Al said quietly. It was true, Rose thought. Everything had been peaceful up until August, when the Muggle-borns' murders began. Once the Death Eaters had all been sent to Azkaban, long before Rose was even born, the Wizarding World had entered a time of quiet; nothing major had happened. There would always be the occasional crimes, and there had been occasional murders or attacks since 1998, but these were few and far-between. Besides, that sort of thing happened anyway. There hadn't been any major things, however, and certainly nothing like this; no new Dark forces had stepped up after Voldemort's death.

Now, apparently, there was. This had to be connected somehow to the Muggle-born killings that had happened over the past three months. It was certain in Rose's mind. It was way too much of a coincidence, that first Muggle-borns were killed and then a student was attacked, and there were threats of more attacks unless those with less-than-pure blood were removed from the school. They had to be linked somehow, Rose mused.

"Don't worry," Professor Clearwater addressed the Weasley-Potters grouped around Dominique. "We will set protections in place, and you all should be safe. Now..." She glanced at her watch. "You should be getting up to your common rooms. It's getting late. Victoire, Molly, Rose - if the three of you would head back to Ravenclaw. Fred, James, Roxanne, go up to Gryffindor. Albus, I'll escort you to Hufflepuff since you're the only one there, and a first year should not be wandering around alone right now."

"It's Al," he mumbled, but Professor Clearwater either did not hear him or ignored him.

They split up once they left the Hospital Wing. Fred, James, and Roxanne were loudly discussing the note, and Rose vaguely wondered if Gryffindors were predisposed to be loud, as it certainly seemed that way sometimes. She followed Victoire up to Ravenclaw, keeping pace with Molly, who kept looking back and around her as if the person was going to jump out and attack them. She supposed that they were safe for now; after all, the note had said they had a week to get rid of the Muggle-borns. She knew that wasn't going to happen, as Hogwarts was determined to allow all witches and wizards in, regardless of their blood-status, but she assumed that they would still have a week's safety before the person began attacking.

Besides, she thought, she and Molly were with Victoire. Even if the person planned another attack as another warning, she highly doubted that the person would dare to attack three students at once, especially when one of those students was a seventh year. It was true that she and Molly wouldn't be able to defend themselves well, especially considering Rose's inaptitude for practical magic, but surely Victoire could. Speaking of Victoire... "Hey," Rose said, "Vic." The seventh year turned around, looking slightly surprised.

"What is it, Rose?"

"Is it true you were snogging Teddy on the platform, or was James making it up?"

Victoire's cheeks promptly turned pink. "James wasn't lying," she said, looking rather embarrassed. "I did kiss Teddy."

"Aww, how sweet," Molly said. "How long has this been going on?"

"Since the summer, you two nosy buggers," she said, muttering the last part just loud enough for them to hear.

"So you've been writing one another little love letters while you're here at Hogwarts?" Rose teased, feeling rather like Lily at that moment.

"We've been writing one another. The contents of those letters, however, is nobody's business. Now come _on." _She held her head high and led them up to Ravenclaw Tower, snapping the answer - phoenix - before Rose or Molly could even have a chance to respond to it themselves.

"So do you love him?" Molly asked, deliberately pronouncing 'love' as 'luuuurve'.

Victoire blushed again. "That's none of your business," she answered, and pranced up the stairs to the seventh-year girls' dormitory, leaving Rose and Molly giggling at the bottom of the staircase.

"I think she loves him," Molly said matter-of-factly.

"They are kind of cute together," Rose agreed. After a few more minutes of conversation with the other Ravenclaw girl, she took her book bag and went to sit down and work on her essay for Defense, which was a basic overview of some of the more simple Dark creatures. She had already finished half of it, and was working on the second half when Veronica came and sat down across from her. Although Veronica wasn't mean, she was still completely convinced that all Slytherins were evil, and didn't hesitate to share this with others, much to the annoyance of Rose and Allison, especially. "Hi," Rose said, trying to give the impression that she was too busy to talk.

"Hello," Veronica said properly, crossing her legs and placing her hands demurely in her lap. "I am sorry to hear about your cousin being attacked. That is an absolute disgrace."

"Yeah, it is," Rose agreed, nodding. It was the first time in a while that they had actually agreed upon something. Veronica was almost an outcast in her own dormitory, and while the others weren't directly exclusionary towards her, it was obvious that they preferred each other's company as opposed to hers. Part of it was her Slytherin prejudice; usually Ravenclaws and Slytherins got on relatively well, at least compared to how Slytherins treated the other two houses. The other part of it was her all-too-prim behavior that made her seem like a middle-aged pureblood society woman at times, which didn't mesh well with the other girls' casual behavior.

"Do the professors have any idea who is behind it?"

"No, I don't think so," she answered. They hadn't seemed like they did, anyway, she thought.

"That's much too bad. It's most likely a Slytherin, I can assume." She paused, studying Rose thoughtfully. "Were your Slytherin friends - Malfoy and Lestrange - at the feast tonight?"

"We came in together," Rose responded, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "Besides, Dominique was Stunned, and no first year can Stun anybody." She was certain of that. Despite Leda's talent for practical magic, she was sure that the other girl couldn't perform a Stunning Spell, which was fourth- or fifth-year work. Leda was good, yes, but there was no way that she would have been able to do it - and that was if she had actually been near Dominique at the time, which she hadn't been. Leda and Scorpius were just as innocent as Rose herself, she was positive.

"Well, if you're absolutely certain..." Veronica said doubtfully. "I suppose that I will take your word for it. I still do not trust those friends of yours, though. Slytherins are always up to no good," she added, standing up. "I'll see you around, Rose."

"See you," Rose replied, turning her attention back to her essay. The question of who had attacked Dominique and left a threatening note still floated through her mind, but she couldn't come up with anything. She hoped with all her might that the professors find whomever it was, but she wasn't so sure. After all, it had been her parents and Uncle Harry who had figured out these sorts of things when they were at school - like the Philosopher's Stone and the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets - not the professors. She knew that they were more than capable, but she couldn't help but wonder if they would end up solving the mystery.

* * *

**So the plot has been mostly laid down now, and from now on, most of the chapters will definitely be interesting. There shouldn't be any filler chapters now, thankfully. I'm really enjoying writing this, and please, tell me what you think! I love to hear the readers' opinions, so please review!**


	8. The Week Is Up

It had been a week. Rose woke up that morning, knowing that today meant something, but not quite remembering what it was until a couple of minutes passed and she felt slightly more awake. It had been a week since Dominique had been attacked, and all the Muggle-borns were still in the school. That meant that, presumably, another attack could occur today; their safe period of seven days had passed. She shivered slightly and got dressed, and although she was the first one finished, she didn't head down to the Great Hall by herself like she would have normally. Much too risky, she thought.

The whole school had been on edge the previous week, although Professor Clearwater hadn't actually said anything so far. The Weasley-Potters had also kept the note secret, unsure if, perhaps, the professors had a reason for not saying anything. Maybe they had been trying to catch the person the previous week, and didn't want hysterical students interfering. Whatever the reason, Dominique's attack had been treated as if it was an isolated incident. Rose was sure that was about to change, although whether because of a new attack or because the professors told everyone, she was not sure.

That didn't mean that students didn't jump to conclusions. The attack had made everybody wary, since it was much more than the occasional hexes tossed about before Quidditch matches or between Gryffindor/Slytherin nemeses. Dominique could have been killed if she had landed on her head, for the person Stunned her, knocking her out, at the top of a flight of stairs. She had been very lucky. Stuff like that didn't happen normally; people were always careful not to make their hexes dangerous or potentially-fatal. This was much more than somebody who was bitter about Dominique taking points away from their House.

Rose headed down to breakfast with the other girls, waving at her two friends seated at the Slytherin table, and then Al at the Hufflepuff table. The Ravenclaws sat down, and as usual, Isabella had brought a book down and was engrossed in it. Rose glanced at the _Daily Prophet, _expecting to see something about more Muggle-born deaths, but instead, there was a much more promising headline: _MUGGLE-BORN MURDER SUSPECT IN AUROR CUSTODY. _She pulled it closer to her, intending to read; at that moment, however, the room fell silent as Professor Clearwater stood up.

"Students," the headmistress began, "I have a very troubling announcement to make. One week ago, Dominique Weasley was attacked by an unknown assailant. Miss Weasley is doing fine, as you all know; in fact, she has returned to classes and prefect duties, and no harm was done. However, that night, a note was found on her person, written by her assailant. To put it briefly, the note said that what happened to Miss Weasley was a warning. If the Muggle-borns were not removed from Hogwarts within a week, the person would assault more students. The week is up; as you all may assume, we will not remove the Muggle-borns as you all have the same right to magical education."

"Damn right they do!" a brunette seated at the Gryffindor table, who was right next to Roxanne, yelled out.

"Miss Volante, please watch your language," Professor Clearwater said as students started to talk again. "Quiet down, everybody. Although I refuse to expel the Muggle-born students, as it is unjust - and, in fact, I am Muggle-born myself - this does mean that there is a threat within Hogwarts. Which means I expect you all to follow certain guidelines." She looked over at Professor MacDougal. "Morag, since you are the expert in the field of protection, would you please tell the students what they should do?"

"Of course." Professor MacDougal stood up. "All right, so I have to say this. If attacks occur, and you know anything about them, then by all means, tell a professor. Even suspicious activity can be extremely helpful, so let us know. But moving on to actual protection. Stay in groups at all times. People above fourth year, I would recommend staying in groups of three or more. First through third years, stay in groups of five or more. Everybody, I would recommend knowing a couple spells that you could use to defend yourself. Even hexes can be extremely useful. Don't go out extremely early or late, and I'm not just saying this for curfew reasons. Whoever it is, there's a chance that they might be roaming around when nobody else is, because many crimes occur when nobody else is around at odd hours."

She paused, looking over the sea of students, before continuing. "I'm guessing that you should be safe in your own common rooms and dormitories, but still, always be alert. When you let your guard down...that's when things happen." She sounded ominous, and Rose wondered if that tone was on purpose, to scare the students into doing what they should, or if she honestly didn't know. Rose had met a few Aurors through her Uncle Harry, and some of them didn't realize that they were scary. Professor MacDougal sat down, and breakfast officially began.

Instantly Rose turned her attention back to the newspaper.

_MUGGLE-BORN MURDER SUSPECT IN AUROR CUSTODY_

_There have been multiple murders, all of Muggle-borns, over the past few months, and it seemed as though the Auror Department was not getting any closer to finding who did it, as they admitted themselves. It has been a difficult case to solve, considering that there is seemingly no motive behind it apart from the fact that all of the victims were Muggle-born. In all of the murders, the killer left no evidence behind. However, just this past week, a suspect was apprehended - thanks to a ten-year-old, no less. The ten-year-old, whose name we are not revealing for privacy's sake, was with her Muggle-born mother, who was sleeping in late. The girl heard noises above her and instantly Floo-called the Ministry of Magic's Auror Department, explaining that she heard noises upstairs and was scared. A few Aurors came to check it out, and found a man prowling about upstairs._

_The man, Joseph Thewlitt, 24, is in Auror custody. It is highly suspected that he is linked to the previous Muggle-born murders, although it is unsure whether he is behind all of them or not, as so far he will not cooperate with the Aurors. There are rumors that the Auror Department is planning to use Veritaserum, although considering the procedure necessary for such a thing, it may take up to two or three weeks before they are given permission to do so. It is promising, however, and hoped by many that this will put an end to the murders._

"Wow," Rose muttered, showing the paper to Allison, who was seated next to her. "Look. They've caught somebody."

"Oh, good," Allison said, quickly scanning the article herself. "Hopefully that is the person behind it. It'd be nice if all of this stopped."

"No kidding," Rose said. Her own mother was Muggle-born - so was her Aunt Audrey, a reporter for the Daily Prophet. She wondered morbidly why they hadn't been targeted; both of them were rather high-profile. Her mum was head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and Aunt Audrey was the _Prophet's _head reporter. It was widely-known, also, that both of them were Muggle-born. Her mum was so famous for her acts in the Second Wizarding War, and Aunt Audrey wasn't very shy about her blood-status, either. She supposed they were both under protection, considering how high-profile they were, and, not for the first time, she was thankful for the Weasley-Potter family's high status in the Wizarding world. It really did come in handy.

The five Ravenclaw girls stuck together throughout the entire day, going from lesson to lesson together in order to be safe. Rose was sure that she, as a member of the Weasley-Potters, had the potential to be labeled a blood-traitor and, therefore, attacked; not to mention Isabella was Muggle-born. Allison was pureblood, while Veronica and Nina were both half-blood, but she wasn't sure of how the lunatic assailant would see them, as she didn't know whether their families were considered blood-traitors or not.

The rift between Veronica and Allison was becoming even more pronounced. Since the first night at Hogwarts when they had argued about Slytherins being 'evil', they had decided on a peaceful, although barbed, silence around one another. After Dominique's attack, though, Rose had noticed the tension between them more than ever. Veronica would not sway from her mentality that Slytherins were evil, and, considering that Allison's own mother was a Slytherin, she wasn't likely to change her viewpoint either. Now, she thought, since they were being pretty much forced to spend even more time together...things could get interesting.

"I strongly dislike Herbology," Veronica griped at the end of the day. "I mean, it's so dirty, and many of the plants are quite dangerous. Not to mention that the class is with _Slytherins..." _She cast a slightly disdainful look at Rose, who had spent the whole class sitting with Leda. It was no secret that Veronica disapproved of Rose's friendships with Scorpius and Leda.

"Shut up already." Allison rolled her eyes and flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder. "So you hate Slytherins. I don't flipping care, and I certainly don't need to hear it practically every hour."

"Excuse me," Veronica said, "but I'm pretty sure that I have a good reason to. You-Know-Who came from Slytherin, as did many of the Death Eaters, all who killed and tortured people as if it was an amusing activity. That's evil, and you're saying it wasn't!"

"What?" the taller girl gasped. "What Voldemort and his followers did was evil, I'm not denying that! I'm saying not everybody in Slytherin is evil! My mother was certainly not a Death Eater, thank you very much." She looked ready to pull out her wand and hex Veronica, and Rose was sure that Nina, who was closest with Allison, wouldn't be far behind.

"We shouldn't fight," Isabella said quietly. All of the girls turned to stare at her; Isabella was usually very quiet, and although she'd talk when somebody asked her a direct question, it seemed as though her mouth was sewn shut otherwise. She blushed at their gazes, and then repeated, "We shouldn't fight. We should just agree to disagree."

Isabella's advice was very wise, Rose thought, and so she nodded. "I agree with Isabella. Let's just avoid the subject of Slytherins entirely."

"All right," Allison sighed. "I'll stop if she'll stop."

"I'll make an effort not to bring the subject up," Veronica said, glancing at Allison. "That doesn't mean that my views have changed, though."

"Same here," the tall blonde snapped.

"That's not what we're saying," Rose said. "We're just saying not to talk about it. We know that you'll still have the same ideas, and that's fine."

"Good," both Veronica and Allison said at the same exact time. They glanced at one another, startled to have agreed on something, and then promptly chuckled.

"Come on, let's get back to Ravenclaw Tower," Nina said. "I still have five inches to write on that History of Magic essay - you know, the one that's due tomorrow?"

"Procrastinator," Rose teased. "Anyway, can we stop at the library? I'm meeting Al, Leda, and Scorpius there."

"What about the 'we're supposed to stay in groups of five' rule?" Isabella said nervously, glancing around the corridor.

"They can't punish us for it," Nina said. "Besides, we'll be fine. Four and five aren't that different. Let's go."

"All right," Isabella said, but she still seemed to have doubts.

* * *

**This is really fun to write! I'd love to hear your thoughts about what you think might happen next!**


	9. Making Plans

Rose walked through the stacks of books, heading to their designated table at the very back of the library. It was the closest they could get to being in the Restricted Section without actually entering; the locked gate was only a few feet away from them. It gave them much-wanted privacy, as the librarian, Madam Turpin, could not hear them from that distance as long as they kept their voices down, and few other students wanted to come to this dimly-lit area to study. It was nice to be able to talk without anybody eavesdropping, and they definitely took advantage of that.

The others were already there. She slid into a seat across from Leda, who was seated next to Scorpius, and glanced at Al, who looked very focused for once. "What is it?" she asked, curious about why he was so suddenly intense.

"Listen," he said, sounding rather urgent. "What's going on in the school...it's like what happened in Dad's second year. With the Chamber of Secrets, and all that. It's not exactly the same, but still..."

"Your point?" Leda asked.

"Well, in my dad's second year, Aunt Hermione figured out that the monster going around and Petrifying students was a basilisk. Then Dad and Uncle Ron went into the Chamber of Secrets and Dad killed the basilisk."

"We know the story," Scorpius said. "But what does that have to do with us?"

"When that happened, they were only a little older than us - and they did something that none of the teachers did. Wouldn't it be, I don't know, kind of cool if we could do something like that? If we could figure out who attacked Dominique and left the threatening note, I mean." He still wore that same intense look on his face. "And Rose, you mentioned that you thought it was connected somehow to the Muggle-born attacks outside Hogwarts; we could look into that as well."

"How on earth would we do that?" Leda asked. "The Auror Department is the only one that knows stuff like that, and I know your dad's the Head, but still...I highly doubt he'd send confidential information in a letter to you."

"He wouldn't," Al replied. "But he might talk it over with Mum, or leave some information on his desk. And you might not have known, but I have a sister, and she has a talent, should I say, for doing things she isn't supposed to."

Rose snorted; the description of Lily was quite accurate. "He's right. Lily is a pro at sneaking around. We could ask her to see if she could find any information on the Muggle-born attacks and send it to us. Meanwhile, we could poke around for information here about Dominique's attack, and if there turns out to be another one, that as well. I guess it could work."

"Isn't that risky?" Scorpius said. "Look at what happened to your cousin - and that was just a warning. What happens if we stick our noses where they don't belong, and the person catches us? That couldn't be good."

"Then we won't get caught," Leda said airily. "It isn't that difficult to sneak around and be subtle if you know how to do it. We're in three different Houses; let's just keep our eyes and ears open for any information. Not to mention that being spread out through three Houses means that if somebody from one of our Houses gets attacked, then the person in that House could go visit for solidarity or loyalty or something like that, and get information from there."

"That makes a lot of sense," Rose agreed. "No one could say we're being nosy if we simply go to check on a Housemate after they get attacked. And if we ask them what happened, we can draw conclusions from there. Like how, because Dominique was Stunned, we know that whoever it is has to be at least a fourth year. We might be able to narrow it down even further if we keep track."

Al nodded. "Good point. So are we all in?"

"I'm in," Rose said almost instantly. "I'm not going to let you do this on your own."

"Whatever, I'll do it," Leda finally stopped rocking on her chair. "I'm already involved with you two, after all. Scorpius, you're with me, right?"

"I guess," he agreed, although he still looked rather doubtful. "But if we find out anything major, we tell a professor. Definitely no confronting the person on our own."

"Deal," Rose replied, pulling out a piece of parchment from her bag. "Let me write Lily." Al made a noise of protest, and she rolled her eyes. "You even said this summer that you know you won't end up writing her. I promised her that I'd write occasionally, and it will look much less suspicious that way than if your parents saw it was from you."

_Dear Lily,_

_Hogwarts is really fun, and I know that you'll enjoy it when you get here the year after next. The classes are extremely interesting - except History of Magic, which is taught by a ghost with a horribly boring voice - and there are a lot of people here to make friends with. Al and I made friends with Leda Lestrange and Scorpius Malfoy - and if you dare tell my dad (I need to be the one to tell him), then I will tell your dad that you stole his Invisibility Cloak one night so you could sneak out to the ice cream shop at 10:30 pm. _

_Blackmail aside, I've got something to ask you. Recently Dominique was attacked, Stunned at the top of a flight of stairs so that she fell all the way down. She's fine now, but her attacker left a threatening note in her pocket, saying that he or she would attack even more people, and they would all be Muggle-born or so-called 'blood-traitors'. Because it's happening around the same time as the Muggle-born murders all around Britain, I thought that there might be a connection of sorts. Since Uncle Harry is the Head of the Auror Department, I figured that he has some papers laying around on his desk or something, or perhaps he'll talk to your Mum when he thinks you aren't listening._

_Basically, I want you to get as much relevant information about the Muggle-born murders as you can and send the information to me through a letter. Don't bother with any information found in the Daily Prophet, as I read that every day anyway. _

_See you over Christmas holidays, Lily, and we love you!_

"Nice blackmailing," Leda said appreciatively as she quickly read over the letter. "How old is she, like eight or nine?"

"Nine, almost ten. She'll be coming to Hogwarts the year after next, but she's very excited about it. It's practically all she talks about. That and how she's going to show up James at something," Al added, failing to suppress a chuckle at the idea. "Anyway, she's got this weird talent for being a troublemaker - more so than James and Roxanne put together sometimes - and she is the sneakiest person I've ever met. If we want information on something, my sister can get it."

"It does come in handy," Rose said.

"Sounds like a Slytherin to me," the dark-haired girl said, sliding the letter across to Rose again. "Also sounds like somebody I'd like."

"Don't corrupt my sister," Al muttered.

"It's not my fault if your sister is the opposite of you - as in, cool. Anyway, Rose, you think this will work?"

"Positive." Rose folded the piece of parchment and slipped it in her pocket to mail later on. "Lily can get information on anything. Plus she's got a whole pile of Extendable Ears from my Uncle George's store, and none of our parents ever make a door Unperturbable, it seems. She'll be able to figure something out - of course, if there isn't any information to find, then we run into a problem." She shrugged. "At least we'll have tried, though."

Al nodded. "So this is a go, then. We'll try to find out who this person is - and it will be kind of nice to do something like what Rose and my parents did. People will know us as those people who solved the mystery, not 'a Weasley', 'a Potter', 'a Malfoy' and 'a Lestrange'." He looked like he was going to say more, but at that point a loud bang reverberated throughout the entire library. They stood up, hurriedly grabbing their things, and ran toward the front. Several other students were congregated there, surrounding James and Roxanne. The bang appeared to have been an extremely loud door-slam, considering how close to it everybody was. James and Roxanne were standing in front of the door; Roxanne looked furious, while James had a medley of emotions - anger and nervousness being the main ones - trailing across his face.

"I'm going to murder this person," Roxanne snapped, her voice dangerously low and smooth. "Whoever did this to Alex, I'm going to kill them."

"Roxanne..." James' voice shook. "Roxie, calm down. The professors -"

"They're not doing anything!" she replied. "They didn't do anything when Dom was attacked, and I highly doubt they're doing anything now, oh-" She swore loudly, causing Madam Turpin to finally come over.

"What is the meaning of this?" she asked. "What is going on here?"

"A student was attacked," Roxanne answered, her voice still much too loud. Her dark hair was disheveled, adding to the overall effect of her behavior. "A student was attacked - my best friend - and what does Madam Bones say? 'Don't worry, dearie, she'll be fine'," she mocked, her impression of Madam Bones scarily accurate. "Do you know what they did to her?"

"Miss Weasley," Madam Turpin said firmly. "You must calm down. Go to your dormitory right now if you cannot control yourself - you're attracting a crowd. I understand that a student being assaulted is a terrible thing, but your rage will not do anything."

Roxanne whirled around and stormed out, James chasing after her. Rose exchanged a glance with Al. "Let's go," she muttered to him. "James won't be able to calm her down."

"Good point." Al and Rose pushed through the small crowd, heading out the door. Within seconds, Leda and Scorpius caught up to them. Al glanced over at them as they jogged through the corridors, following James and Roxanne, who could be heard up ahead; neither of them was quiet. "What are you doing?"

"We're part of this," Scorpius said simply. "I'm not the biggest fan of this whole let's-solve-the-mystery thing, but I'm involved, and we're coming with you." He glanced at the two cousins. "Can you two run any faster? That girl - Roxanne - is fast!"

Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "Excuse me for not being athletic."

"Excuse me," Leda said, "but we should all shut up and just go."

"She has a point," Scorpius said, and they all increased their pace, finally meeting up with James and Roxanne, both of whom had slowed down.

Rose grabbed her cousin's arm. "Roxanne, what happened?"

"My best friend was attacked and nobody will let me in the Hospital Wing or even tell me what happened to her," the older girl replied, running a hand through her hair. "She's Muggle-born - she's the girl who interrupted Clearwater's speech to say 'Damn right'. She had stayed back after Potions to ask the teacher something, but then she never returned. Then I hear that she's been attacked." Roxanne had calmed down slightly, although there was still an undercurrent of fury in her words. "This person better be caught, that's all I'm saying," she finished, leaning back against the wall.

Rose reached in her pocket and felt the letter to Lily. "They will be, don't worry about that."

* * *

**Yay, another chapter done! Yes, Lily's definitely going to be a relatively major role in this and its sequels, but it will still focus on Rose, Scorpius, Al, and Leda. Anyway, if you read this far, please review! I'd love to know what you think, and how I'm doing with writing this. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	10. The Marauder's Map

Rose made her way up the steps to the Owlery, followed closely by Al, Leda, and Scorpius. Almost as soon as she stepped inside, a sleek Barn Owl swooped down from her perch and landed smoothly on Rose's shoulder. She reached up and lightly ran her hand over her pet with one hand, pulling the letter to Lily out with her other. "This is Athena," she said to Leda and Scorpius. Al had already wandered off in search of his own owl, presumably just to greet it seeing as he had no letter.

"Goddess of wisdom," Leda muttered. "Merlin, you're such a Ravenclaw."

"I named her before I was Sorted," Rose protested, holding the letter out so that Athena took it and promptly flew off.

"Yeah, which is why you're such a Ravenclaw," the Slytherin answered, smirking. "You named her a Ravenclaw-ish name before you even became one."

She rolled her eyes at them."Al," she called, "what are you doing?"

"I'm just over here," he replied. "Looking for Storm - oh, there she is."

"You're sending a letter?" Rose hadn't known that.

"To Mum and Dad," he called back, and half a minute later he returned. "Are we done, then?"

"I guess," Scorpius said. "Since we don't have anything to mail, and you two already sent your letters." He glanced at Rose. "How long will it be before Lily writes you back."

"Not long," she chuckled. "Lily will write a response immediately, I know - it's not like she's very busy. Of course, she may not have information immediately, that may take her a little while to get. She's got to wait until her parents are gone to snoop, and...Al, how often do your parents usually leave Lily alone?"

"Once a week or so. She may be only almost-ten, but they're not too worried about leaving her alone," he explained for the two Slytherins' benefit. "There's enough protective charms on the house to trip up an intruder for long enough so that Lily could get out. She knows how to use Floo powder, plus there's a few spare wands around, and she knows where they all are. She can't really do too much controlled magic yet, but if she gets a wand she could probably make something happen."

"Yeah, she can definitely handle herself," Rose agreed. "Anyway, so it will probably be only a couple of days before we get a reply, but maybe a week or so before she responds with anything important."

* * *

What Rose thought, however, did not turn out to be correct. She had been expecting a response immediately, even if it wasn't a whole lot more than 'All right, I'll help you', but that did not hold true. Athena returned, without a letter, and it was nearly a week before the Potters' owl, Hedwig III, dropped a letter at Rose's plate during breakfast. During this time no more students had been attacked, and Alexandra Volante was let out of the Hospital Wing, although it was still unsure what had happened to her.

Rose tore open the letter, eager to see what information Lily had written down in her small, messy scrawl. The letter was extremely short, however, and offered nothing about what Rose had asked. She read it a couple times, sighing - she knew what Lily was thinking, and it was now too late to stop her, as neither Athena nor Hedwig III could make the journey to the Potters' house in enough time to tell the younger girl no. It didn't matter, though - Lily would do what she wanted even if Rose had been able to write back. She scanned the letter again.

_Ravenclaw common room. 2:00 am. Be there, and bring your friends if you can. _

_-L_

"Oh, Lily," she muttered, rolling her eyes. It would be so much simpler if Lily sent the information in a letter, but of course, Lily Luna Potter was not one to do what other people wanted. She folded the letter, putting it in her pocket, and stood up. If Al, Leda, and Scorpius were to come into the Ravenclaw common room, then she would need some help. It wasn't exactly encouraged to bring people from other Houses into a different House's common room or dormitory, but it wasn't against the rules, either. People would do it no matter what, and so most teachers and prefects had given up. However, the fact that they would have to come in after curfew - way after curfew at that - was a problem, and she didn't want to be seen walking around late at night. That was where James came in.

She walked over to the Gryffindor table and tapped James on the shoulder. He was seated with Roxanne, Alexandra - who looked like she hadn't been sleeping well - and a boy that Rose didn't know. James turned around, glancing up at her. "What is it?"

"I need to talk to you," she said. "Can we leave for a minute?"

"All right," he sighed. "Make it fast, though. I'm hungry."

"As usual," she muttered, and they hurried out of the Great Hall and into a small room near it, which looked like it had never been used. "James, I need your help."

"With what?"

"I just do." She didn't want to tell anybody about how she, Al, Leda, and Scorpius were trying to solve the mystery behind who had attacked Dominique and Alexandra. That should remain secret, at least for now. Not to mention that James, always a little overprotective, would probably try to stop them. "You stole that map from your father, I know you did. The Marauder's Map."

He looked shifty. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, stop pretending, I know you have it. I need to borrow it just for today, I promise that I'll give it back to you tomorrow, all right?" She wasn't thrilled at the idea of sneaking around after curfew and breaking the rules, but it was necessary. Obviously, if Lily was determined not to send information in a letter, then she had found something. Rose knew it would be much simpler if all four of them were there to hear what the nine-year-old had to say; she might forget something if she had to repeat what Lily had told her later on.

"Fine," James answered, not looking very happy. He rummaged in his bag and pulled out a piece of parchment. "To use it, just tap it with your wand and say 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.' Then, when you're done, tap it again and say 'Mischief managed.' And whatever you do, don't lose it."

"I won't, don't worry." Rose was tempted to examine it right there, but decided against it. "Thanks so much, James."

"Never thought I'd see the day when you asked to borrow it," he replied. "Lily, yes. Roxanne, yes. Freddie, yes. But you?" He shook his head. "Things are certainly getting weird."

She waved at him as she left, hurrying back to her seat at the Ravenclaw table. This will definitely work, she thought. The Marauders' Map was certainly an ingenious object, and everybody showed up on it. There was no way that anybody could sneak up on her and the others if they had this, be it teacher or student. She headed over to the Hufflepuff table and whispered, "Be outside your common room at one-thirty am," to Al before heading to the Slytherins and repeating the process to Leda and Scorpius, although she decided to pick them up at one-twenty instead. She felt a thrill of anticipation go through her, and couldn't help but realize that just a little, she was looking forward to this.

Not that she'd ever admit it.

* * *

Rose couldn't sleep. She didn't even bother trying; she had no idea how to wake herself up, and she didn't want to oversleep. It was a much better idea just to stay up, but that didn't mean that it was easy to actually stay awake. She was only eleven, after all, and unlike some of her cousins, she wasn't the sort of person to stay up late for fun. Numerous times she caught herself dozing off, even when she tried to read a book, and if it weren't for the worry that she would wake up her roommates, she would have gotten out of bed and walked around the room.

She spent some of her time looking at the Marauder's Map. It was a brilliant object, and although the Marauders had been troublemakers and pranksters and not the sort of people that Rose normally would have admired, it would have been impossible not to admire this. The fact that it was made by people who had been only a few years older than she was now was even more impressive, and she could understand why James revered it so.

At one o'clock in the morning, she slipped out of bed, quietly putting shoes on and tugging a cloak over her head; the castle wasn't heated very well after curfew since students weren't supposed to be out anyway. Since it was November, it would be cold. She silently left the dormitory, the Marauder's Map in one hand and her wand in the other. She didn't know exactly what she would do with it, but it felt better just to have it with her - not that she would be able to fight somebody off very well. Heck, she thought, Lily would probably do a better job of it, and Lily was barely ten. Deciding not to focus on that very much, she left Ravenclaw Tower.

It was rather exciting to be out late at night, wandering around by herself. She always followed the rules as best she could, but in this case, it was a new and interesting experience. She constantly checked the Marauder's Map as she headed down to the dungeons, worried about being caught by a teacher or perhaps the caretaker Goyle, but Goyle was on the other side of the castle. The only teacher who wasn't in bed appeared to be Professor MacDougal, and she was in her office.

It wasn't particularly easy finding her way. The light cast from her Lumos spell was weak, and didn't help too much. If she hadn't had the map, she was sure that she would have gotten lost quite easily. It was helpful, though, to look at her own dot on the map and see which way she had to go to reach the Slytherins' area. She was sure that she got there earlier than 1:20, but both Leda and Scorpius were waiting for her when she arrived. They were both pressed against the wall, wands out, obviously on edge. "It's me," Rose said.

"What's that?" Leda peered at the map. "Merlin, that's amazing."

"It's the Marauder's Map. Uncle Harry's father and friends made it," she replied, keeping her voice down, although why, she wasn't sure. Nobody was around them. It would have felt strange to her, though, to be loud or even normal in this situation - wandering the castle in the dark after curfew, sneaking around like this.

"Impressive," Scorpius said, also looking at it. "This is so useful."

"_Lumos," _Leda murmured, and a light flared from her wand, much brighter than Rose's. "You hold the map. I'll do the light."

"Thanks."

They made their way to the Hufflepuffs' common room, picking up Al, who looked extremely nervous, before heading back to the Ravenclaw common room. It took them a little while to figure out the answer to the riddle, but finally they were inside. Nobody was there except them, and they sat down around the fire, quietly talking about nothing in particular.

About fifteen minutes had passed when suddenly, the fire flared, turning green, and a figure stepped out.

* * *

**Hey, readers. This story has been entered in the Long Haul Competition, which basically means that I have to write a chapter - of at least 1500 words - every week. Since I've got a lot of schoolwork, this should be interesting...Anyway, please review! I'd love to hear your thoughts :)**


	11. New Information

"Hey," Lily Luna Potter said to the four students gathered in front of the fireplace. She dusted herself off and perched on a chair directly across from where Rose, Scorpius, Al, and Leda were sitting. "Wow, Rose, you actually allowed them in here? Breaking the rules a bit, huh?"

"Never mind that," Rose answered, rolling her eyes. She wasn't as much of a stickler for rules as her mother, no matter what everybody else thought. Or, well, after this she wouldn't be; she wasn't sure how many rules she was breaking right now by talking to a nine-year-old who had sneaked into Hogwarts through the Floo network at two in the morning, a Hufflepuff and two Slytherins by her side. Probably many, she thought. "Do you have information for us?"

"Would I really have come here if I didn't?" Lily replied. The nine-year-old glanced at Scorpius and Leda. "Hi, I'm Lily."

"I guessed that," Leda said, although she was half-smiling. "I'm Leda, and this is Scorpius. So what did you find out?"

"Lots of stuff." She paused slightly, then took out some parchment from her pocket and started looking at it. The nine-year-old's messy scrawl was all over it; apparently she had given herself a cheat sheet so she didn't have to remember all the information. "The bloke that the Aurors arrested -"

"Joseph Thewlitt," Rose interrupted.

"Yeah, him. He's got a sister in Slytherin in seventh year, so maybe she could be the person hurting students."

"What's her name, and what does she look like?" asked Leda. "Maybe I've seen her around."

"Her name is Rachel Thewlitt. I don't know what she looks like, though. Her brother's file simply said that he had a seventeen-year-old sister in Slytherin at Hogwarts, it didn't say what she looked like." Lily was very casual about the whole thing, Rose thought, as if getting information from official Auror files then coming to tell people in the dead of night was an everyday occurrence. "Oh, but there's one other big thing. Joseph Thewlitt didn't kill everybody, just some of them, and it wasn't his idea."

"Wasn't his idea?" Al gasped. "You mean, he's working for somebody? Somebody like Voldemort?"

The nine-year-old shrugged. "I don't know if this other bloke's like Voldemort. I've never met either one of them, you know. Anyway, I didn't find anything about that from Dad's files. I heard Mum and Dad talking about it. I guess Joseph Thewlitt said something about a group called the Circle of Darkness. And something about a knot."

"Do you think a knot could be their symbol?" Scorpius guessed. "I mean, the Death Eaters had the Dark Mark. Maybe people in this new thing, the Circle of Darkness, could have a knot as their mark or part of it."

"That makes sense." Rose nodded, then turned her attention to Lily again. "What else did you find out?"

"Well, when I eavesdropped on Mum and Dad, they were talking about the Circle of Darkness a lot. About who might be in it and who might be leading it and stuff. Thewlitt's obviously in it, but they're not sure about the rest of the members. All the Death Eaters are in Azkaban. Pretty much," she added, obviously trying to avoid looking at Scorpius. Rose knew that Scorpius' father had been a Death Eater, and yet he hadn't served any Azkaban time. Trying to force her mind away from that train of thought, she made herself pay attention to Lily again. "There's got to be quite a few members, though, if the way Dad talked about it was true. He made it seem like the Death Eaters and Voldemort, sort of. Like all that's going to happen again."

"It can't happen again," Al said, his voice shaky. "This time they've got a really good Auror department, and the Ministry isn't as messed-up as last time-"

Leda interrupted him. "They've killed...I can't even keep track of how many Muggle-borns have died in the past few months." Rose couldn't help noticing that Leda didn't even stumble over the word 'Muggle-borns' this time, and felt a note of satisfaction. "And only one person has been caught, and thanks to someone not much older than Lily here. I know the Aurors are trying, but still...I think something's going to happen."

Scorpius nodded. "Last time, with the - I mean, Voldemort - he was pretty much after Harry Potter the second time around. I mean, he wanted to get rid of Muggle-borns and take over and stuff, but still, his main goal was killing Harry Potter. This time, it doesn't seem that way, it just seems like they want to kill off all the Muggle-borns. They're being much more careful, too, it looks like."

"Careful is bad, at least for us," Lily said wisely.

"True," Rose agreed, sighing. She was glad that she now knew about the Circle of Darkness, as opposed to being completely in, well, the dark about the whole thing. Still, though, the thought of more Dark forces rising made her nervous. She knew about a lot of the things her parents and family had to deal with during that time, and even then, she didn't know about all of them because some of them were too scary to tell an eleven-year-old. Like Aunt Ginny's sixth year at Hogwarts; nobody ever mentioned that time. Or exactly what happened when Voldemort rose after the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament. She really didn't want to have to go through the sorts of things her family had.

"What if...what if the sort of situations that happened last time happen again?" Al asked, looking between each of them. From Rose, to Scorpius, to Leda, and finally to Lily, the youngest one there. Rose knew how much Al loved Lily, even though he'd never admit such a thing. He'd be devastated if she was hurt. And knowing Lily, she wouldn't hesitate to jump into the thick of things even before she was old enough to. She'd be like their parents were, trying to become Order of the Phoenix members at age fifteen. Al glanced away from his sister, staring at the ground now, and Rose noticed how anxious he looked. Apparently the things Leda and Scorpius had said had struck true with Al.

"Who knows?" Lily said, sliding the parchment back into her pocket. "I gotta go. It's nearly two-thirty now, and Mum's making me get up at nine in the morning tomorrow." She made a face at the thought of getting up early. "See you later. Rose, you better keep writing me, let me know what's going on at Hogwarts. Merlin knows Mum and Dad won't tell me." She took a small packet of Floo powder from her other pocket and threw it into the fireplace, jumping in and heading back to her house.

"Come on," Rose said tiredly, standing up. "We've got to wake up early tomorrow. We'll discuss this more later, at a more normal time of day."

The others stood up as well, and they left Ravenclaw Tower. Rose used the Marauder's Map to make sure that they didn't run into anybody as they first went to Hufflepuff, dropping off Al, and then heading to Slytherin where Scorpius and Leda left. She headed back to Ravenclaw Tower on her own, her weak Lumos spell lighting the way as she watched her steps on the map, making sure that she didn't run into anybody. Making a mental note to give it back to James tomorrow, she tapped it as she re-entered the tower, whispering, "Mischief managed."

The parchment went blank, and she headed upstairs, putting it under her pillow and kicking off her shoes, falling into bed. Her body was tired as a result of staying up so late, when usually she went to bed by ten o'clock at night, but her mind was racing. Lily had certainly come through, gathering a lot of information. So Joseph Thewlitt, who had been arrested in relation to the Muggle-born murders, had a sister at Hogwarts. The sister was in Slytherin - which, as much as Rose tried to be unbiased, had indeed resulted in many Dark witches and wizards - and was in seventh year, certainly old enough to know enough magic to attack students.

She wondered how she should go about finding Rachel Thewlitt. Scorpius had said that they should tell a professor as soon as they came up with anything, as opposed to finding things themselves. It made sense, but would the professors actually investigate Rachel? It's not like there was any evidence against her apart from that she was related to somebody who murdered Muggle-borns. Hogwarts was very fair; they would never accuse somebody without proof, and there was no proof. Perhaps, Rose thought, she could ask Victoire. Victoire was a seventh year, so surely she would know what Rachel was like, even if she didn't know her personally.

That wasn't the only thing going through Rose's mind, however. The mention of the Circle of Darkness also kept coming back to her. It made everything much more serious, in her opinion, than if it had been just one murderous lunatic going around. If there were multiple people, even dozens, who felt the same way, then there would always be somebody to step up when another one was arrested, just like the Death Eaters. It was much more dangerous that way, and she wasn't used to danger. She wasn't like her parents, who had been key players in the Second Wizarding War, and had been in danger every other week.

It was peaceful now - or at least, it had been. Rose couldn't remember a time when she feared for her life except when she went too high on a broom; there was never anything more serious than that. There was never the fear of somebody breaking into their house and attacking them, there was never the fear that when her parents left for work, she'd never see them again. She knew that was what it was like back when Voldemort and the Death Eaters were around, but she couldn't imagine it in regards to her own life.

"Rose?" a quiet voice asked, causing her to nearly jump a mile. She was sure that her roommates had all been asleep. She looked in the direction of the voice, positive that it had been Isabella.

"You're awake?" Rose gasped.

"I heard you come in," she replied, still being quiet. Whether it was to prevent the others from waking up or because it was Isabella's natural voice, she wasn't sure. The Muggle-born girl certainly was quiet, after all. "I was just thinking about the attacks. It's just...I'm scared. Alexandra Volante won't say what happened to her, and she's so silent and shy now, which is the opposite of what she was before. I don't...I don't want that to happen to me. If something can scare the girl who interrupted Professor Clearwater in front of everybody..." She let the sentence trail off, but Rose knew what she meant.

"I don't know what happened to her either." Rose sat up, seeing Isabella do the same in the near-darkness. "It is scary."

"Do you think they'll catch the person?" Isabella seemed so small; she was a petite girl like Rose, but certainly thinner than the solid Weasley, and coupled with her nervous, quiet voice, she seemed much younger than her eleven years. She seemed younger than Lily, even, and Rose felt like she wanted to protect her.

"I'm sure they will," Rose assured her, trying to sound knowledgeable and confident. "Somebody will," she added, wondering if, possibly, the person to catch the attacker would be her.

* * *

**Haha, I love Lily, she's so awesome. So there was definitely some new information in this chapter, hmm? I've got this completely planned out already, but I'm curious to hear what you think about all this! Please review and tell me what you thought.**


	12. Letters and Presents

_Dear Lily,_

_Happy tenth birthday! Since I can't buy you anything - first years can't go to Hogsmeade, and I'm not about to sneak in like you would - I decided just to send you a letter. I know how much you love getting letters, and I thought that this could be my present to you. So again, happy birthday, Lily._

_Another student was attacked. It was a Hufflepuff sixth year this time, Grayson Mark. He was flying around by himself on the Quidditch pitch, and apparently, somebody came and cursed his broom so that it would throw him off. It was dark, so Grayson wasn't able to see what the attacker looked like. He's fine now - he was only twenty-five feet up, and thankfully, his friends came and found him quickly. He was Muggle-born also, just like Alexandra, the other girl who was attacked. Looks like this person is serious. __I don't want to spend your whole birthday letter on that, though, as much as this whole situation probably interests you. I know you're curious about it all - I swear, you'll make a fantastic Auror if you still end up wanting to do that - but I won't make your birthday letter about this. _

_So, anyway, to change the topic. I'm staying at Hogwarts over Christmas holidays. Scorpius, Al, and Leda are staying as well. Since less people are here over the holidays, if somebody gets attacked, there's a more narrow list of people to choose from, and we'd be able to narrow it down much sooner. Oh, bloody hell, I'm writing about the attacks again. Whatever, it's not like you mind. So we're staying in an effort to figure out who did it._

_Speaking of the attacks, since it's taking up so much of my mind right now, Victoire refuses to tell me what Rachel Thewlitt looks like. Apparently she believes I'm going to bother Rachel, as if I'd be stupid enough to confront a seventh year on my own. No, I would have Leda and Scorpius subtly observe her in the Slytherin common room, since they are experts on being subtle, apparently. (They're reading over my shoulder right now. So is Al.) But now, we can't even do that._

_Al and Leda are worse than my parents when it comes to bickering. Maybe it means they'll end up together, just like my parents. Of course, now they're trying to start an argument with me about how stupid that idea is. Wow, they agree on something for once. I wish I had a camera - I'd take a picture so I could remember this event, since I highly doubt that it will ever happen again. And if they're insulted by reading this, then they should stop reading over my shoulder._

_Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful birthday, and keep trying to get information about the Muggle-borns' murders for us, if you can. As always, we love you, and Al insists on telling me to write 'Al says hi' because he's too much of a lazy person to write his own letter. Boys._

_Love, Rose._

Rose tucked her quill and ink back into her bag before standing up, folding the parchment and sliding it into an envelope. She turned around, glancing at Al, Leda, and Scorpius, who all tried to look rather innocent, as if they hadn't been reading right over her shoulder just seconds before. Rolling her eyes at them, she waved the envelope. "We should go to the Owlery. I want Lily to get this on her birthday-"

"You've mentioned that," Leda interrupted. "Let's go. It's almost supper - we've got to hurry."

They half-jogged to the Owlery, where Rose handed off the letter to her owl Athena. From there they went directly to supper, dividing when they reached the doors, as usual, and sliding into their seats just as Professor Clearwater began speaking. "Students, you still have two days to sign up for whether or not you're staying here over Christmas break. And as you know, since a student was attacked just a couple of days ago, we should all still be on the watch and alert. I do believe that is all, though, so now we may eat." The students promptly dug in to the food, and as always, conversations broke out.

Rose quickly found that Nina, Veronica, and Isabella were all going home for the holiday. The only other Ravenclaw first year staying was Allison, although she didn't seem too happy about it; apparently, her parents had decided to take a cruise without their daughter, something she kept on bemoaning. She changed her tone slightly, though, after, when a large crowd of Ravenclaws headed back to the common room. Rose and Allison ended up together, separated from their other three roommates by the crowd. The blonde girl glanced around and breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't want to be here over Christmas," she said, not for the first time. "But, looking on the bright side - no Veronica!"

She cracked a smile. Allison and Veronica were still in that uneasy gray area of people who don't like each other, but were forced to get along. It was obvious that a couple weeks of a Veronica-free dormitory was something to look forward to for Allison, and even Rose certainly wouldn't have any objections to it.

The crowd of students entered Ravenclaw Tower, splitting up once inside. Rose found a small table by the fire and began to work on a Charms essay that was mostly completed. She glanced around at all the other students, knowing that in a short while, most - although not all of them - would be gone.

* * *

"Rose."

"Rose!"

"Rose Weasley, it's ten in the morning!"

That last one caused Rose to leap out of bed, her mind racing about how they were going to be so late. It hit her, though; it was finally Christmas holidays, which meant that they could sleep late (although she had, obviously, missed breakfast, and her stomach was rumbling). She glanced up at Allison, who was smirking slightly at the reaction. "It's Christmas - let's open presents."

"Well, what else would we do? It's not like we can eat breakfast," Allison quipped, sounding very Leda-esque in that moment. "Come on." The girls eagerly went down to the common room, where there were a couple piles left. There was evidence that others had already opened their presents; wrapping paper and ribbons were littered all across the floor, as the house-elves hadn't come in to clean so far.

It was with enthusiasm that Rose tore into her pile, which was, considering the size of her family, rather large. There was a Weasley sweater, blue with bronze trim, from Grandma Molly, and she quickly put it on, warming up instantly. That would certainly help during the cold Hogwarts nights. Her Muggle grandparents had sent her some money neatly tucked into a card; it was Muggle money, but it was still useful since her family occasionally visited Muggle locations. She received several books - two from Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur and one from Uncle Charlie, for starters. Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey sent her an extremely useful homework planner, although Aunt Audrey had written '_Sorry, he really wanted to get you this...I would have gotten you something more interesting. Love, Aunt Audrey' _inside.

Chuckling to herself, Rose moved on to the gifts from her parents. There were a couple of those; the first one she unwrapped was the old version of _Hogwarts, A History. _This was the same version that Rose's mother had read back in those Hogwarts days, for, after the war, everything had to be updated in light of recent events and extensive renovations. Hogwarts looked the same as it had, but a lot of things had to be rebuilt, and this, of course, was in Rose's copy of the book. It would be intriguing to see what the old version had looked like.

She promptly decided not to show that to Al, Leda, or Scorpius - they, certainly, wouldn't find it as interesting as she had. She picked up the next one and unwrapped it: a lovely package of sweets that seemed to be from Honeydukes, the Hogsmeade shop. Pushing aside the temptation to dig in now, she glanced over at Allison, who was done. The blonde's pile had been much smaller, although the gifts appeared to be more expensive. Still, the other girl was staring at her pile, not looking extremely happy. "Hey," Rose said, gesturing to the sweets package. "Have something." She paused slightly, unsure what to say as Allison picked out a Chocolate Frog and began munching. Finally, she decided on, "Are you all right?"

The tall blonde shrugged, still chewing the frog. "I guess. It's just...it's pretty obvious that my parents didn't buy me any of this stuff. They made other people do it, because they were too busy with their cruise." Her mouth twisted on the last word. "Your family is so close. Everybody likes one another, or at least gets along. Look at that." She points to Rose's large pile of gifts, some opened, some not. "That's all yours. And they'd never pay somebody off to go Christmas shopping, either."

Deciding not to contradict that - it was much easier than explaining how Lily or James might do that if they explained exactly what to get - Rose fidgeted with a ribbon. "I...er..." She didn't know what to say in this situation either; although she considered Allison a friend, the girls weren't as close as Rose, Scorpius, Al, and Leda. They certainly hadn't had a conversation like this.

"I'm used to it," Allison replied. "It's just disappointing to see that they did it again." She mustered up a smile and gestured to Rose's unopened gifts. "Go on, then. Let's see what you've got."

The rest of Rose's presents included a book on DADA, a framed picture of the whole Weasley-Potter family, a blue bracelet that would match nicely with her Ravenclaw accessories, a few Decoy Detonators - leave it to Uncle George to get her a present that was actually banned at Hogwarts - and a small box full of other WWW products, some owl treats, new parchment, and a couple expensive, long-lasting quills. She and Allison both packed up their things and dumped them on their respective beds before getting dressed.

They headed down to lunch with Ling Xi, who was also a first year, Jim Haverton, the year above, and Molly. When they reached the Great Hall, two owls dropped letters in Rose's seat as soon as she sat down. One was from her parents, whom she had been writing to consistently (although she hadn't told them about Leda and Scorpius; that was something she would rather discuss in-person) since the start of the year. The other, as she soon found, was from Lily.

_Dear Rose,_

_Joseph Thewlitt's escaped. He was being held at some cells in the Ministry, since they weren't allowed to send him to Azkaban yet, because he hadn't had a trial. But now he's broken out. He couldn't have done it himself, though, because he didn't have a wand. He had to have outside help. Dad's really ticked off about the whole thing, and Mum's kind of scared. Dad's kind of yelling, which is actually a good thing. It means that I can hear without getting too close, which is pretty cool. But I've done something very cool - I went to visit Hugo. All by myself. I went over there while I was supposed to be at home alone, and I went back home before my parents got home._

_If you tell anyone, well, I'll tell them about the fact that you're friends with a bloody Malfoy, much less a Lestrange. And don't say 'language, Lily' in your next letter._

_Love, Lily._

* * *

**Lily...I love that girl. Anyway, I'm glad I was able to include a little bit of family background for Allison; I want to be able to develop these background characters, since they'll definitely be of importance in later books. Thanks for reading!**_  
_


	13. Making Connections

Rose's mind whirled. Thewlitt had been broken out of the Ministry's holding cells. It made sense; the holding cells at the Ministry were guarded, but not well. Anybody who was a decently powerful witch or wizard could defeat the guards, which obviously had happened. The person came in, attacked the guards somehow, and released Thewlitt. The person obviously had to be a member of the Circle of Darkness; who else would have bothered to do such a thing?

A couple of days had passed since Christmas Day, and there had been no more attacks. She had gotten hold of James and copied down all the names that were presently on the Marauder's Map, in case there was an attack, but so far, the list was pointless. If there was no attacks over the holiday, then the four students were back to suspecting everybody over fourth year, which was a much bigger number.

About twenty-five students had stayed for the holiday. All the professors were there also, however, which bumped up the number even more. Rose was reluctant to suspect any of them, but Leda and Scorpius had insisted, saying that just because somebody was in a responsible adult position didn't mean they were responsible adults. They made a good point, but she still firmly believed that it was a student; she had a hard time picturing any of the professors attacking anyone.

Rose sighed as she made her way through the stacks of library books. Allison had supposed to come with Rose into the library, in the interest of sticking together, and then work on the little schoolwork they still had while Rose was with Leda, Scorpius, and Al. They had come up with the idea together, and Allison had seemed all right with it. Until, of course, she had seen a group of second years, including Rose's cousin Molly, heading back to Ravenclaw common room. The blonde girl had dashed ahead so she could go back, leaving Rose to go into the library alone.

She wasn't that scared, however. The library was not the place for an attack; Madam Turpin would certainly notice if somebody was attacked, or at least she hoped so. She headed to their desk near the Restricted Section, coming up behind Al, who started. "Whoa," he said as she sat down. "I did not hear you coming."

"I saw you coming," Leda, who was sitting across from Rose and Al, said. She was currently using her wand to carve their initials RW, SM, AP, and LL into the desk, where they joined several other scratches and marked initials from previous students.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Al protested.

"Because it's fun to see you jump." The Slytherin smirked. "Anyway, I overheard some interesting gossip in the common room today," she said suddenly, her tone of voice taking on a more urgent, important-sounding note. She looked at Scorpius before turning her attention back to the two Weasley-Potters. "This - the attacks, I mean - is connected to the Circle of Darkness and the Muggle-borns' murders. Officially. I was skimming through a book while I was in the common room, trying to appear like I wasn't listening, and then I heard this girl say something about how glad she is that the Circle of Darkness is getting involved at Hogwarts, and not just outside. And she sounded extremely convinced. She fully believed what she was saying."

Scorpius nodded. "They left the common room right after that, literally before either of us could see who it was. But I was closer to them, and I overheard somebody say 'So it's officially the Circle?' and somebody else the same person who said she's glad, I think said 'Yes, I'm certain'."

"Wow." Al quietly whistled. "So this is connected to what's going on outside of Hogwarts. The Circle wants to kill off the Muggle-borns, or at least enough of them to make their point."

"Exactly. And somebody at Hogwarts is involved with them," Rose said. "And they're attacking Muggle-born students. None of them have been fatal, thankfully, but-"

"It's only a matter of time," Leda interrupted. "We need to figure out who's doing this." She ran her finger down the list of people staying. "Merlin, I...it's not like I want somebody to get attacked, but it would be really helpful if the next one occurs over the holiday." The Slytherin kept her voice low, not wanting anybody to overhear her. "Then we'd know, at least, that it's one of these people. It would have to be; I don't think the attacker would be risky enough to try and Floo in from outside. Too much of a chance of being seen."

"Exactly. Then it would have to be one of these people," Scorpius agreed.

Rose sighed, looking at the name at the very bottom of the list. "Leda, I told you that it's certainly not Victoire-"

"Just because she's your family doesn't mean we're taking her off the list," the dark-haired girl replied firmly. "She's staying here over the holiday, so she's a suspect. All these people are, no matter what. I'm not thrilled at having MacDougal as a suspect. I like her. But she's here, so is your cousin, so they're on the list. Personal preferences aside."

"Why is Victoire staying, anyway?" Al's forehead wrinkled up in confusion. "I would have thought she would have gone home to see Teddy, since they're dating."

"Roxanne thinks that they had, in his words, a 'lovers' spat'," Rose responded, rolling her eyes. "As much as her wording is ridiculous, she's probably right. They probably fought in writing. It can't be easy, after all, since Vic is still at Hogwarts and Teddy's in Auror training." Everybody in the Weasley-Potter family knew that Teddy was going to be an Auror. He was always interested in it from a very young age, rather like Lily in that way. "Anyway-"

She was cut off by a loud bang from the front of the library. Leda grabbed the parchment, tucking it away, and they cautiously crept towards the front, wands drawn just in case. It was obvious what had happened when they reached the area; a bookshelf had fallen down, obviously by magic, since nobody would be strong enough to do that by physical strength alone. Madam Turpin rushed up from a different corner of the library just as the four students did, gasping, "What on earth was that?" She hadn't been around there when it happened, apparently, which was rather disappointing.

A second-year girl was standing near it, shaking slightly. "I-it fell and it almost hit me but I managed to get out of the way," she stammered. "It was meant for me, I-I think. Like one of the other people who got hurt."

"Let's take you to the hospital wing," Madam Turpin replied. The girl didn't seem to be hurt, but she was obviously shaken by the whole situation. Louder, she called, "Everybody else, out of the library. The professors will want to take a look at this."

There were only a couple other students in the library besides Rose, Al, Leda, and Scorpius, and they reluctantly followed Madam Turpin out. Leda tapped the list that was hidden under her robes, nodding. "Now we know," she whispered. "It's definitely one of these people."

"Who was that girl?" Al muttered back, glancing in the direction of the Hospital Wing. "I don't know her."

"She's a second-year, that's why," Rose replied. "It'll be all over the school by tonight, you know that."

They wandered the corridors for a bit, having nothing else to do. The library was their main place to hang out, since they were in three separate Houses. It was too much work to sneak somebody into the other common room like they had that one time, and Rose didn't plan on doing it again - although, knowing Lily, it was a possibility. They were heading back down to the library after about a half hour, hoping that the teachers would have left, when Professor MacDougal came dashing in the opposite direction.

"What is it, Professor?" Rose asked.

The woman turned around, obviously making an effort to appear as though she had not been running through the corridors. She was in good shape, and barely panting, although she was certainly disheveled. "Another student was attacked," she replied. "That student happened to be my daughter."

"Wait, the girl in the library-" Al started, wrinkling his forehead. "She doesn't look anything like you. She's...she has dark hair and her skin is darker than yours."

"I know. She's not biologically mine. Anyway, I had to go investigate the library to see if there was anything left behind, which there wasn't, so now I'm heading up to the Hospital Wing." She looked at them, realizing something for the first time. "In the future, groups of five are safer. You're only first years." She hurried off before saying anything further, however.

"Isabella told me the same thing," Rose muttered as they headed back to the library. They walked inside to see that the bookshelf had been returned to its proper position, and there was no sign of anything having occurred. "So let's write this down. We've got a list of who was attacked so far, so let's add this person to the list. What's her name - Leda, can you take out the list of students?"

"Sure." They had written down everybody who was staying, even those under fourth year, although there was an 'X' next to people who were under fourteen and therefore couldn't be a suspect. Leda pulled it out of her robes as they sat down, laying it on the desk. "Here she is, this has got to be her. Teresa Vane-MacDougal."

"Thanks." Rose hurriedly wrote down _Teresa Vane-MacDougal, 2nd year, blood status unknown, almost crushed by a bookshelf. _"Wonder why she was attacked. If she's Professor MacDougal's daughter, even an adopted one, she wouldn't technically be Muggle-born. Maybe this is the first attack on a so-called blood-traitor besides Dominique."

"Possibly." Scorpius nodded. "That does make sense. All the others except for your cousin were Muggle-born. But I thought of something else. MacDougal's an Auror, well, now she's a reserve, but she was an Auror for years. I'm sure she's made some enemies - and I'm sure some of them are now in the Circle of Darkness. Whenever new Dark forces arrive, there are always people who flock to them. And it's certainly possible that some of them know her, and they sent a message to the person at Hogwarts saying to attack Teresa next."

"True," agreed Al. "A lot of people - like criminals and Dark wizards and stuff - don't like Aurors. Somebody probably would attack Professor MacDougal's daughter for revenge."

"But who could it be?" Leda mused. "She's been an Auror for such a long time. Even if we could get hold of her file - or, should I say, if Lily could get hold of the file - there would still be a lot of people that she's dealt with over the past what, fifteen years? It would take such a long time to eliminate who it was, not to mention that wouldn't help us. It might tell us who's in the Circle of Darkness feeding information to the Hogwarts attacker, but it wouldn't help us figure out who the Hogwarts attacker actually is."

"We have this, though," Rose reminded, gesturing to the list of students and professors who were still at Hogwarts. "We've made progress, at least. It's one of these people. That's absolutely certain." She looked at the forty or so names. "Now we just have to figure out who."

* * *

**Yes, Teresa Vane-MacDougal is the daughter of Romilda and Morag; she's Romilda's biological daughter, which is why she has darker coloring. Yes, I ship Romilda Vane and Morag MacDougal. Anyway, thanks for reading!**


	14. The Great Hall Riot

Weeks passed, with nothing further happening at Hogwarts. It was almost February, and yet there hadn't been a single attack since the Christmas holidays, when Teresa Vane-MacDougal had almost been crushed with a falling bookshelf. Rose was happy that nobody else had been injured, but the lack of attacks made her on edge. She couldn't help but think that somebody was biding their time, pretending that the assaults had stopped, and was then going to suddenly jump out and do something big, perhaps even kill somebody this time.

Although the attacks at Hogwarts had stopped, the outside world was facing even more problems. The murders of Muggle-borns hadn't stopped, although quite a few of the victims had been smart enough to Apparate or Floo away before the person could cast the Killing Curse. The people who got away rarely had a good description of the person who broke into their homes, however; either the person was wearing a hood, or they didn't hang around to look at their attacker long enough to get a good description.

Nina interrupted Rose's train of thought as the five first year Ravenclaw girls headed down to breakfast. "Did you hear? Professor MacDougal got called out. She's not here anymore - the Aurors needed her on the outside, so we've got a substitute. Doubt the substitute will be as good, though."

"I don't think anybody could be," Allison agreed. "Unless it's another Auror, maybe. They know DADA really well, of course, since they use it all the time. It would be awesome if it was another one."

"If they could spare one," Isabella said. The Muggle-born had been growing slightly more confident with her roommates; she was no way near as loud as Nina, but she talked more around them. It was obvious she was still quiet around other people, but she had overcome her shyness with the four other Ravenclaw girls. "I'm sure they have a lot of people working on the murders," she guessed. "Or would it be just a select group...I don't really know how the Auror Office works."

"Nobody does except for the Aurors," Rose quipped. "It's true, though," she added as Allison and Nina snorted. "My Uncle Harry's an Auror, and my dad used to be one. Not very many people know their inner workings." She was sure that if she was desperate to know, Lily could find out. Lily had recently written Rose, telling the older girl that she had sneaked into the bloody Ministry of Magic to 'look around because she was bored', apparently. Rose was positive Lily would be a Slytherin at Hogwarts; not that she planned to tell über-Gryffindor James that.

Pushing that thought aside, she slid into a seat at the Ravenclaw table, the other four girls right by her. As usual Isabella got a copy of the _Daily Prophet, _and Rose, sitting directly next to her, leaned over to read it alongside the other girl. Both of them gasped when they saw the headline, and Nina craned her neck around Rose. "What is it?"

"Listen." Isabella folded the page and began reading it. The other students nearby - Ling Xi, Jim Haverton, Molly - all stopped to listen, their attention caught by the first year's urgent, worried tone.

"_AZKABAN: NO LONGER SAFE? Just yesterday, the Wizarding prison Azkaban, long known as the most secure place for criminals, was overcome. A large group, probably numbering at least one hundred, stormed the prison, defeating the guards through sheer force and size. Although Azkaban guards are trained well, in much the same way that Aurors are, they are not equipped to deal with instances such as this, as few people are bold enough to enter without permission, much less in large numbers like this. The crowd then went through the whole building, questioning each prisoner about the nature of their crimes and their views on certain subjects, namely Muggle-born, Squib, and Muggle rights. _

_Those people who believed in pureblood superiority, and especially those who had been imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns, Squibs, or Muggles, were freed and continued going through the prison with the rest of the crowd. All of the guards were either killed or severely injured; those who were left alive are all in the critical care unit at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. About twenty-five prisoners were allowed to join the group who had broken in, according to one of the inmates left behind. It was also guessed that, in the confusion, a few others were able to escape, since the total of escaped prisoners is higher than twenty-five. (It is also possible, however, that the inmate who guessed twenty-five was wrong.) _

_The group who broke into Azkaban was guessed to be the Circle of Darkness, although since they do not have identifying marks like the Death Eaters did, it is difficult to be sure without further proof from the Auror Office. If it was the Circle of Darkness, they now number at least one hundred and twenty-five, although it could be more since it is unknown if the full force of them went to Azkaban to break others out."_

"Bloody hell," Rose swore, glancing over at the Slytherin table. Leda and Scorpius had a copy of the newspaper in front of them, and were heatedly discussing something. Al had his head down on the table, as two older students nearby him appeared to be playing tug-of-war with the _Prophet. _In all four Houses, the students appeared to have read the newspaper and were discussing the Azkaban issue and the Circle of Darkness; it was a hot topic now. "No wonder Professor MacDougal got called by the Aurors."

"It does make sense now," Veronica agreed. "This is not only a rather serious breach in security for Azkaban, but it is also a new development in the whole Circle of Darkness situation."

Allison shrugged, not wanting to fully agree with Veronica but knowing that the other girl was indeed correct. "Look, there's our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." She gestured; a woman had just entered through a room off the staff table. She was petite and curvy, with dark hair and olive skin, and Rose had never seen her before. "Wonder how they got her on such short notice."

Professor Clearwater stood up, clapping her hands a few times in order to silence the crowd of students. It took a while, and even when most people were silent there were still a few noises. The Hufflepuff students near Al still hadn't decided who would get to see the newspaper next, and it was obvious that it was going to break soon. One Gryffindor seventh-year yelled to another "I told you she was a horrible choice!", while Leda and Scorpius were still whispering, occasionally jabbing the _Daily Prophet _with a finger.

The Headmistress decided not to bother with quieting these few rowdy students. "I would like to introduce Romilda Vane. She is going to be taking over the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for an unknown amount of time. Our regular professor, Morag MacDougal, has been called away by the Auror Office, as they need her assistance on this whole situation with the Circle of Darkness. Speaking of which, I would like to reassure you all that Hogwarts is extremely safe, and there isn't any chance of them interfering here."

"They said that last time, and the Death Eaters barged in!" yelled Roxanne.

"So what if the Circle of Darkness can't come in, there's already problems here!" one of the Hufflepuffs fighting over the newspaper yelled.

"It's been months, and you can't figure out who the attacker is!" That was Alexandra Volante, Roxanne and James' friend.

These three broke the silence; the Great Hall erupted. It was louder than it had ever been; students were arguing with one another about things not even relating to the subject at hand. Allison and Veronica took the time to resume their debate about whether Slytherins were automatically evil or not; Nina and Isabella were trying to sneak away. Rose saw Leda, arguing with another student, and Leda yelled something along the lines of, "My grandmother is Bellatrix Lestrange!" if Rose's lip-reading was believed to be accurate.

It seemed to go on forever, but it was probably only a minute before Romilda Vane bellowed, "SILENCE!" louder than physically possible. There was certainly some charm in assistance there; she vaguely remembered reading about something called the Sonorus Charm, which made something loud. Romilda Vane's shout caused everybody to shut up, and they froze in the position they had been in. Nina and Isabella were almost towards the door, Leda was pointing her wand at the student across from her, the Hufflepuffs' paper had finally torn, and Allison and Veronica looked ready to come to blows.

Romilda Vane's eyes swept over the entire room. "I want everybody to go back to their seats. I want everybody's wands back in their pockets, and I want everybody to keep their mouths shut. This is an absurdity, and the whole lot of you should get detention. As it is, I'll hand this over to the Headmistress."

Everybody did as she said. The whole Great Hall, apart from a few students like Rose and Molly who had kept out of it, was obviously on edge as Professor Clearwater stood up. "I am aware that we are all tense. The situation in the outside world is not a good one, and the attacks here are putting everybody on edge. That being said, absolutely nothing gives you the right to behave like a bunch of angry buffoons. I cannot punish all of you, since I am aware that some of you did not do anything. However, I will say that if I see anything such as this happening again, I will not hesitate next time, and I will indeed give the whole school detention. In addition, I must ask Miss Roxanne Weasley, Mr. Jacob Laurent, and Miss Alexandra Volante to go to my office. I wish to have a word with the three of you. Everybody else is dismissed."

They filed out quietly, subdued after their riot. The five Ravenclaw girls didn't stay together; Nina, Isabella, and Allison headed away from Veronica, since Allison had fought with the latter. Rose, not wanting to deal with Veronica's anti-Allison rants, fell back into step with Al. There was a multitude of students, so they weren't technically alone, which was good. She felt that, after that episode in the Great Hall, the teachers wouldn't hesitate to punish students for even minor things like not being in groups.

"Wow," Rose said quietly, not needing to say any more.

"Yeah." Al sighed. "I...I don't know. It's just scary, how everybody turned on one another all of a sudden. I remember Dad telling me that in his fifth year, the Sorting Hat's song told them all to stick together, or there would be consequences. And there kind of was, in a way - I mean, it was Dumbledore's Army against the Slytherins, kind of. Then Leda saying, over holidays, how some of the people in her house knew that the Circle was there at Hogwarts...do you think they support it? Like there's a group of mini-Circle of Darkness members here?"

"I don't know, Al. I really don't know."

* * *

**I didn't actually intend to write the riot when I started writing this chapter...it just kind of popped out. I did plan on bringing Romilda in at some point, though - the reason that they were able to get her so suddenly is because since Morag and Romilda are together, when the Aurors called out Morag, Romilda volunteered to fill in. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	15. Putting The Pieces Together

_Dear Rose,_

_I have a list of the people broken out of Azkaban. I don't know whether it'll be helpful or whatever, but I thought I should give it to you just in case. You know, this Invisibility Cloak is coming in very handy. I Flooed into the Ministry wearing it, it was late at night -_

Rose set Lily's letter aside; she could tell that the rest of it was going to be a blow-by-blow account of how Lily had sneaked into the Ministry wearing the Invisibility Cloak, probably at some obscene hour like three in the morning, and gotten hold of the list of escaped inmates. Although the escaped prisoners' pictures had been posted all around, both inside Hogwarts and outside, the names had not been revealed; the people wouldn't be stupid enough to go by their real names, and apparently releasing the names could allow people to interfere more easily by asking questions of dodgy people and getting themselves killed.

Of course, a few copies of the list had been kept in Uncle Harry's office; he was the head of the Auror Office, after all. Nobody would have anticipated, either, a ten-year-old sneaking in using an Invisibility Cloak in the dead of night. The Ministry was patrolled, but that was the only protection, as the offices themselves were not locked. The Department of Mysteries was, but nobody would bother locking simple offices when there were talented guards on duty.

Whatever the reason, Lily's mission had paid off. It was a good thing, too - if Lily Luna Potter had been caught breaking into the Ministry, that would have caused a scandal. It wasn't technically illegal, what she was doing, since she was so young and Rose and her friends weren't up to anything, but it would require a pretty hefty explanation.

The thought of Lily standing in front of the Wizengamot, explaining how she, a mere ten-year-old, had sneaked past trained guards, made her press a hand to her mouth, trying to hold in laughter. "Are you okay?" Scorpius asked concernedly, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah." Rose regained control of herself. "Just...Lily. Anyway, here's the list." She picked up the other piece of parchment that had been included. She passed it across the table to the two Slytherins, who promptly began poring over it.

After a few minutes, Leda looked up. "They're all names I recognize," she said. "As in, all of them are either pureblood or have a pureblood father." She shrugged. "Why?"

"Because that adds evidence to the theory that it was the Circle of Darkness that broke them out, and it did so because they were purebloods who, most likely, hated Muggle-borns," Rose explained. It had been two weeks since the breakout at Azkaban; there still had been no more attacks at Hogwarts, and the castle was divided between those who thought the attacks were over, and those who believed that the person behind them was simply biding their time. Rose, Al, Scorpius, and Leda belonged to the second group.

"Plus," Al added, "then the people that the Circle of Darkness broke out - they'd be in debt to the Circle, and the Circle could blackmail the ex-prisoners, saying that if they told anybody, they'd be sent back to Azkaban." He paused, looking at the other three anxiously. "Right?"

"That makes a lot of sense," Scorpius said. "The former prisoners would owe them, big-time. And they'd probably be so relieved to be out of Azkaban that they'd be willing to do whatever."

Throughout the whole conversation Leda had been looking over the parchment; she turned it over and promptly set it down on the table. "Look what it says right here. 'One of the prisoners that was broken out, Theodore Nott, had been visited by Joseph Thewlitt multiple times, before the latter was arrested'." Leda raised her eyebrows. "The person who was responsible for some of the Muggle-born killings." Continuing to read the small note, she said, "'Nott was in Azkaban for murder, and his father was a Death Eater. When Thewlitt visited, the other prisoners reported that Thewlitt was scared of Nott, despite the fact that Nott was always behind bars during their visits.' Huh..."

"What if Nott's high up in the Circle of Darkness?" Al guessed. "Leading it, or a really high position - like an inner circle sort of thing. Usually with something like that, the bosses tend to scare people."

"That was the case with Voldemort," Rose said. "Everybody was terrified of him, even those in his inner circle." Al shot a not-so-subtle glance toward Leda, who rolled her eyes. "We can't jump to conclusions, but it would make sense. After all, there's a few things in his favor - the way Thewlitt was scared of him, the fact that Thewlitt even visited at all, he's in for murder, and he had a Death Eater father."

"Nott..." Leda said slowly. "There's an Aurelia Nott in Slytherin, second year. She must be his daughter. I wonder if she has anything to do with it - I mean, she couldn't have attacked anybody, the magic's too advanced, but if she's involved at all."

"Would you and Scorpius be able to find out?" Rose asked. "I don't know how you are with the other Slytherins - considering you hang around Al and I, after all - but would you be able to nose around and try to see if she's involved?"

"I can try," Leda said, as Scorpius nodded. "My surname does give me credibility in Slytherin, but I don't know if she'd be willing to tell some random first year what she's up to, especially one who hangs out with people like you two. But I'll see what I can come up with."

"Great!" Rose said happily, deciding to ignore the 'people like you two' comment. "Our first real lead. Was Aurelia here over the holiday?"

"I think so," Scorpius said. "Check the list of people when you get back to your dormitory - it's with you, right?"

"Yep." She nodded. "Perfect, then. I'll see if Aurelia was here. Hmm, I wonder if Aurelia and Rachel Thewlitt are working together. I'm sure that Theodore Nott's allowed to contact his daughter; maybe he sends her messages in code, and she relays the information to Rachel, who actually attacks the students."

"Interesting," Al said.

"This whole mystery is interesting." Rose put her chin in her hand, and suddenly a flashback came to her. Lily had mentioned, when she came through the fireplace, something about 'a knot' when her parents were discussing the Circle of Darkness. At the time, they had all thought that it might be the Circle of Darkness's symbol, like the Dark Mark was for the Death Eaters. It did make sense, considering all the different Celtic knots that could have been used, but now, a different thought came to her.

What if it wasn't 'knot' that Uncle Harry had meant? What if it was 'Nott'? They were pronounced exactly the same way; nobody would be able to tell the words apart by hearing alone, and since Lily hadn't caught the whole gist of the conversation and the context in which it was used, it easily could have referred to Theodore Nott. Perhaps the Aurors suspected him even then, and that's why this little note - which hadn't been written by Lily - was on the back of the parchment.

"That's it," Rose said. "It has to be Nott." She quickly explained the whole knot-Nott theory, and by the time she finished, the other three were nodding so much they resembled bobble-headed dolls. "Remember that article when the Azkaban breakout happened? It mentioned that the Circle of Darkness had no defining marks, and it sounded pretty definite on that. After all, the Death Eaters always left the Dark Mark at the scene of a crime, but never once were the Muggle-born murders marked."

"I remember comments on how simple the murders were," Leda said. "The murderer went in, did Avada Kedavra, and left. Nothing else."

"Exactly. If the Circle had a mark, they'd be spreading it around to inspire fear like the Death Eaters did. But they aren't. So then it's doubtful that what Lily heard referred to a knot in a rope; it had to refer to Nott. I bet the Aurors suspected him long before this. They probably guessed it the same way we did - Thewlitt. Thewlitt visited Nott several times. Why would he do that? They aren't related, right, Leda?"

The dark-haired Slytherin shook her head. "All pureblood families are interrelated, but Thewlitt and Nott have never crossed paths. I remember that because Mum pointed it out when she showed me all the family tree stuff. They're not related at all."

"Not to mention, Thewlitt's what, early twenties? And Theodore Nott is the same age as our parents, so they couldn't have known each other from Hogwarts. Thewlitt visited him to get information on what Muggle-borns he wanted dead; I'm sure they used some sort of code, but that must be why. The Aurors must have noticed that connection as well."

"We should ask for more information," Al said. "The Aurors have files on everybody. If we - er, Lily - could get Nott's file, then we can see if he actually seems like somebody who would lead the Circle of Darkness or not. I mean, there's proof and stuff, but should we be safe?"

"Of course," Scorpius said. "That makes a lot of sense. Aurors have false leads all the time, and we don't want to assume anything. Meanwhile, while we're waiting for Lily to get us the file, Leda and I will investigate the other Slytherins and see if we can find anything. Actually, Rose, if you give us the Slytherins that were here over the holidays, we'll be able to look further."

"Perfect," Rose replied. "Remember, be careful. These people are obviously not afraid to do bad things to people."

"You're telling us to be careful, yet you're sending a ten-year-old into the Ministry of Magic," Leda quipped.

"Said ten-year-old has an Invisibility Cloak and a weird talent for sneaking around," Rose retorted. She was a little iffy on making Lily return, practically breaking and entering the Ministry, but if anybody could do it, it was Lily Luna Potter. Besides, back in her parents' fifth year, a group of six had just walked into the Ministry and into the Department of Mysteries without anybody finding them; one ten-year-old under a Cloak shouldn't get caught. "Anyway..." She pulled a fresh piece of parchment toward her and scribbled a message to Lily.

"What'll happen when Lily gets to Hogwarts?" Al muttered.

"This'll be over by then," Rose said confidently. "Besides, once Lily gets her hand on a wand - and I mean a real one of her own, not your parents' spares - the whole world better look out. Moving on, we'll have Lily get us the file and we'll see if Nott's behavior would fit with somebody running a huge group of Dark people."

"We should see when he was imprisoned," Scorpius said. "After all, if he was put into Azkaban way before any of this started happening...I'd be curious to know how he started it. Maybe he has somebody else working with him."

"Perhaps," Rose said, adding a postscript of 'Be careful' to Lily's letter. "That would make sense."

* * *

**Apparently I can't write a Next-Gen fanfiction without throwing Lily in there. Anyway, thank you all for reading, and the next chapter should be up sometime next week!**


	16. Two Weeks

"You won't be needing your books right now," Professor Morag MacDougal said, glancing at the class of first-year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. About half of them had bothered to take their books out, the other half having decided they wouldn't need the textbooks. It seemed as though part of the time, Professor MacDougal preferred to teach from her own guidelines; occasionally, though, she would have them actually read in class.

"What happened to Professor Vane?" Ryan Clement, a Hufflepuff sitting near Al, asked.

"She was a substitute, Mr. Clement, and so when I returned, Romilda's services were no longer needed here. Anyway, over the past several months we've covered a lot of basic Defense Against the Dark Arts material. Which, although important, is only part of defending yourself. Because although it's important to know what you're up against, it's also important to know what to do about it and how to react. Which is why this class will not be focused on Dark creatures or simple protective spells or any of the other things you've been learning here. Instead, I'm going to talk about something just as important. Defending yourself isn't just using spells, you know. What else is it?"

Nina raised her hand, and the professor gestured to her. "I remember in the first class of the year, you made us be observant. Like asking us questions about our surroundings and stuff."

"Correct. Being observant is key. If you aren't paying attention, then somebody could sneak up behind you very easily. Which leads us to another part of defending yourself. The element of surprise. If you can surprise the other person, then you have an advantage over them because they weren't expecting it." She paused, looking around the classroom. "Miss Weasley, can you explain why the element of surprise and performing nonverbal spells go hand in hand?"

Rose reasoned that out quickly, even though the first years hadn't been taught any nonverbal spells - that was sixth year material, after all, but this simple reasoning was not. "Because using nonverbal magic means the other person doesn't know what's coming. The person doing the nonverbal spell has a split-second advantage."

"Good. When you say an incantation out loud, the other person has a second to respond to whatever you're doing, especially if the incantation has multiple syllables. If you do it nonverbally, though, they have to respond much more quickly." She looked as though she was going to say something more, but at that moment the door burst open and Professor Clearwater hurried inside, looking extremely grim.

"What is it?" Nina asked, exchanging a glance with the other Ravenclaw girls.

Neither adult answered her; the Headmistress spoke in quiet tones that even the people sitting in the front row could not catch. She was obviously muttering to Professor MacDougal on purpose so that the students could not overhear, and suddenly, Professor MacDougal gasped at the other woman's words. "Merlin! I didn't even realize - students in this school - are you sure, Penelope? That's a bit advanced for a Hogwarts student, you know."

Professor Clearwater conspicuously glanced at the class of first years. "Might we discuss this somewhere more private, Morag?"

"What's there to discuss? Mr. Entwhistle has been brought to St. Mungo's, hasn't he? Do you require my assistance with something?"

"Yes, Mr. Entwhistle is at St. Mungo's." The Headmistress ran a hand through her hair. "As you said, that is an advanced Dark curse. I highly doubt - oh, why can't we go somewhere else? I need to discuss something with you!"

"Fine." It was rather obvious, to Rose, that although Professor MacDougal didn't appreciate the breaking-up of her class, she understood the necessity behind this. "Class, I would like you to...huh, where can you all stay?" She exchanged a glance with Professor Clearwater. "How long should we be?"

"I think we should be done by their next class. They should probably stay in here - they'll be safe in a group, there's twenty children here."

"All right. Everyone, just read in your Defense books until I return. If it reaches the end of the class period, then please head to your next class." Professor MacDougal followed the Headmistress out, and instantly the students began discussing the whole situation. Rose twisted around in her seat to look at Al.

"Another student has been attacked, I guess," he said, looking nervously towards the door. "Entwhistle. Haven't heard that before."

"Not a first year," Rose replied. "Or else we would have. I'm pretty sure he's not Muggle-born, though. I think I heard Mum mention him before as a Ministry worker. Maybe he's considered a blood-traitor."

"Wish we had the Cloak," Al murmured. "Then we could follow the professors and find out what they're up to."

"We would get in a lot of trouble. But maybe it would be worth it," she conceded as Al shot her a look. "Besides, the Cloak is hundreds of miles away with Lily, so it doesn't matter. The only other thing that would make us unseen is a Disillusionment Charm, and that can only be done by a sixth or seventh year - and we are not hunting one down and asking them to do it for us, since we don't even know where Professors MacDougal and Clearwater went."

"Up to the Headmistress' office?" he guessed, shrugging. "Not that it really matters."

"Probably." She sighed, nudging her chair closer to his so they could talk more quietly and not be overheard. "It just feels like we're no closer to solving this than we were in the very beginning. I mean, we have a theory that Theodore Nott is in charge of the Circle of Darkness, but that doesn't help with this. And we suspect Rachel Thewlitt and Aurelia Nott, but again, it doesn't really matter. It's not like we have any real proof."

"Wait a second, Rose. This whole conversation just now - that was a clue, don't you see? Did you hear Professor MacDougal say that Entwhistle was attacked with some advanced Dark curse, and she was going to say something about 'I highly doubt-' but she was cut off. What if that meant she highly doubts the culprit is anybody below seventh year or a professor?"

Rose wrinkled her forehead. How come Al could figure out stuff like that, but was almost failing History of Magic? He was smart when he actually put his mind to something - although she supposed that made sense, considering what hard workers Hufflepuffs were. "It's an assumption," she said slowly, "but it does make sense. That would narrow down the list a lot if it was true."

"We could try it," Al replied. "Just see if it makes sense. Oh, and we can probably cross Professor MacDougal off, also, since she was with us this whole time. It had to be somebody who wasn't in class, or who was late to class."

"Right." The rest of the class was still talking; apparently leaving a roomful of eleven- and twelve-year-olds alone without supervision meant that absolutely zero work was going to get done. Even Isabella, the most well-behaved and studious out of all of them, was chatting with Ling as opposed to actually reading anything. Looking around she noticed that, although a few students had their books out, nobody was actually reading. It was impossible to, what with the multiple conversations going on at once.

* * *

"Look at the teachers," Leda muttered to the other three as they entered the Great Hall. Rose glanced at the staff table, instantly noticing what Leda had. All of the teachers were solemn and grim - not angry, not sad, just utterly and completely serious. There weren't any conversations going on between them, and it seemed as though many of the students had also picked up on this aura of solemnity and decided to not talk as much as usual.

"It's got to have something to do with Entwhistle's attack," Scorpius reasoned. Rose and Al had filled in the two Slytherins on the events of the day when the four of them had met up at the library; they had used the knowledge that the person had to be either a seventh year or a teacher, and as a result the list was narrowed. There was three Slytherins - Rachel Thewlitt, Ava Greenwood, and Barnabas Avery. Only one Ravenclaw - Victoire - and both Rose and Al firmly believed in her innocence. Two Hufflepuffs, Daniel Jackson and J.L. Morgan, and four Gryffindors - Leila Monterey, Lakshmi Anand, Casey Bennet, and Herb Rivers. Then there were all the professors, of course - all of whom were currently looking more serious than ever.

The four students separated as usual, and when the final stragglers entered, Professor Clearwater stood up. "Another student was attacked today," she said. "John Entwhistle, seventh year. He was hit with a particular Dark curse, the effects of which are rather gruesome." A couple students began speculating, but they fell silent quickly when the Headmistress continued speaking. "Mr. Entwhistle would have died if I hadn't happened to be only a few corridors away and I heard him manage to yell for help. Unfortunately, while I was tending to him, the person who did this to him got away."

"This is terrible," Veronica said. "Why don't they just question all the Slytherins-"

"Shut up," Allison hissed, "You don't know that it's -"

"She's not done," Rose said, interrupting both of them as Professor Clearwater began speaking again.

"There have been too many attacks for comfort, not to mention that this particular one would have resulted in death had I not been so close. This being said...I'm afraid Hogwarts will have to close down if this doesn't stop. I will give it two weeks. I'm aware that this is potentially dangerous, as a lot could happen then, but the other professors and I agreed that it would give the person a chance to come forward, not to mention give you all a chance to prepare. N.E.W.T. and O.W.L. students will still need to take their exams. I will allow the other years to bypass the tests as long as all your teachers feel you have received proper instruction. And for those seventh years and fifth years, your exams will only cover the material that you have worked on so far."

"You can't close Hogwarts!" about fifty separate students yelled at once. Rose was expecting another riot, but surprisingly everybody stayed in their seats. The noise level was quite high, however, as the food appeared on the tables. Looking towards Gryffindor, she noticed James, Roxanne, and a couple others around them making gestures that weren't very appropriate for second-years; she caught James mouth something about 'going out with a bang' before she turned back to the Ravenclaws, deciding she didn't want to know.

Two weeks. They had two weeks to figure out who the culprit was, or else Hogwarts would close. That couldn't happen; she loved this place. It was a second home to her, and she couldn't bear to think of the possibility of not returning ever again. She and the others needed to find out who was behind everything.

They needed to do it quickly, or else everything would be ruined. She took a deep breath, putting her hand in her chin. They had a certain number of students that it could have been. They had the professors as well - Rose didn't really think it was one of the adults, but they couldn't take them off the list. Now, they simply had to narrow the list down. More specifically, they had to catch somebody in the act.

A plan began to form in Rose's mind, and she started working out the details.


	17. A Plan Is Revealed

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Leda asked as a few more people trickled into the abandoned classroom. It was the day after the announcement that Hogwarts would be closing, and the school had been in an uproar. James, Roxanne, and their friends seemed to think it their personal mission to get as many pranks in as possible. Dominique and Victoire were rarely seen without books. Most of the school was either making trouble, trying to win as many house points as possible, or, in the case of fifth and seventh years, studying extremely hard.

Thanks to Rose's plan, however - a plan which she had determinedly not revealed the details of to anybody - there was a large number of students gathered into this classroom. She had brought her own roommates, and told Al to bring his as well. All of her cousins - meaning Victoire, Freddie, Dominique, Molly, Roxanne, and James - were there, and most of them had brought a few people as well. In total there was probably about thirty students standing in there, from all four houses (although Scorpius and Leda were the only Slytherins).

"All right," Rose said, attempting to gain control of the room and ignoring Leda's question. "Everybody?" she said a bit louder, but the students, immersed in conversation as they were, did not pay any attention.

"Quiet!" Leda yelled, and everybody shut up, turning to stare at the first year who had dared shout at them. She smirked at their questioning glances, and gestured to Rose. "I think Rose has something to explain to us."

"Yes," Rose said. Normally she would be a bit scared to speak in front of this many people, especially people that she didn't know, but this was a special circumstance. "So, um, we're all here because Hogwarts is going to close in a couple weeks, and we really don't want that to happen. And, um, I came up with a plan. Because if whoever's behind the attacks is caught, then the school won't close."

"It better not," Scorpius muttered darkly.

"I was thinking. The, er, attacker - they always seem to go after people who are alone. So I was thinking about ways to lure them to attack, but the problem is that many of us-" Rose gestured to herself and her fellow first and second years -"couldn't actually fight this person off. Some older students might not, even, since they're obviously pretty talented. But if we weren't actually alone, it might work."

"But if we're not alone, then they won't try and curse us," a sixth year said with the air of somebody explaining something to a small child.

"I realize that," Rose answered, fighting to keep her voice even. "My idea is that we split into pairs - a first or second year with an older student. One of them will be walking around a small section of the castle - probably only one or two corridors - and the other will be hidden somewhere they can keep an eye on the other person. That way, the attacker will go for the person who appears to be alone, and the other can jump out and use the element of surprise."

"That's brilliant," Roxanne said. "But I have a way to improve on that. You see, I have a family discount at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes - in fact, everything is free for me. My dad won't think twice if I ask him for a crate of fireworks. I can pass out a few fireworks to each pair, and when someone's attacked, they can set the fireworks off. Then other people will hear, not to mention that the person who's attacking might get a bit startled."

"How soon can you get them in?" Al wrinkled his forehead. "It won't matter if it takes a couple weeks, Hogwarts will be closed by then."

"A couple weeks?" Roxanne snorted. "As if. Give it three days. We'll do this more than once if we have to, right? We don't know if the person will attack on the first time - they'd have to be wandering around after curfew."

"True," Scorpius answered her, "but they probably will be. With Hogwarts threatening to close, they'll probably want to hurt as many people as they can by that time."

"In a way, that's good," Leda said. "Means we won't have to do this five times. But we probably shouldn't be out after curfew except for this. Just to be safe."

"Of course," Rose said. "Not that I'm out after curfew, anyway." She forced her mind away from the instance of sneaking out to get Leda, Scorpius, and Al so they could meet Lily in the Ravenclaw common room. That, also, was a special circumstance. "Moving on. I have two pieces of parchment here. First, second, and third years sign this one -" she gestured to one -"while fourth and up sign the other."

The students moved toward the table, and it was a couple of minutes until everybody had signed one of the parchment pieces. Rose then put them close together and murmured a simple spell to attach them; now each name was directly across from a separate one. She drew a line between each pair in order to divide them. It was completely random, as she could soon see from some of the pairs - like Leda and Freddie, for instance. A Slytherin - a Lestrange, no less - and the Gryffindor King. Hopefully the two of them didn't end up in a screaming match.

Deciding to focus on more pressing matters, she tucked the list away. "Nothing matters until we get a hold of the fireworks. So in three days we meet here again. I'm thinking that we meet here right before curfew, that way we don't get caught coming down. Then we'll hand out fireworks and divide into pairs. Oh, and we'll have to decide where everybody's going. I guess we'll do that then, though."

"Do you think this will work?" Ryan Clement asked.

"Hopefully," she replied. "No one knows. But it's the best chance we've got, so we might as well go for it. It's not like we have anything else that we can do."

The idea was strangely thrilling, if Rose was honest with herself. Just like when she had sneaked around Hogwarts after midnight to escort Leda, Al, and Scorpius to the Ravenclaw common room, she was a bit excited. She knew that it was against the rules, and she knew that she'd never do it for something pointless, but in something like this or the previous occurrence...it had to be done.

It reminded her of the adventures her parents and Uncle Harry had while they were in school. They had done so many things for the good of the school and the Wizarding world, and it was why they were famous; it was why the names Weasley and Potter were known around Hogwarts, and not just as the family with way too many relatives to count. It would be nice to do something that set her apart, and she wouldn't just be 'Ron and Hermione Weasley's daughter'. She could be 'the girl who stopped Hogwarts from closing'.

She relished in that thought for a moment before leaving the classroom with the others. As it was after dinner, she thought it would be best to head up to Ravenclaw Tower, and she caught up with Molly, Dominique, and Victoire, who were doing that exact same thing. The two older Weasleys were discussing their upcoming tests - as Dominique was in fifth year and Victoire seventh, they still had to study, and study hard.

"I hope your plan works," Molly said, adjusting her rectangular glasses. "I love Hogwarts. And - although James and Roxanne would probably think differently - not just because of the classes. It's just...it's a cool place to live. I don't want to go back home and be taught there."

"Agreed," Rose said fervently. She loved her parents and her brother, but it was refreshing to live somewhere else. She missed seeing them, but she was having a good time at Hogwarts (apart, of course, from the constant worry of being attacked, which she knew was not supposed to happen). She didn't want to be taught at home either. She wanted to be taught here at Hogwarts, like generations of magical children before her.

"Who am I paired with?"

"Wait a second." Rose rummaged in her bag for the parchment. "You're with, er, Austin Wood. Huh, I don't know him."

"He's a year below Dominique, I think, but friends with Freddie. They're on the Gryffindor team together." Molly smiled slightly. "Austin Wood is...good-looking."

"Nice to know," Rose answered, rolling her eyes. "Huh, I'm with Dominique."

Dominique, apparently, was so immersed in her conversation with Victoire that she didn't notice Rose saying her name. Either that, or she had indeed heard Rose and Molly but didn't particularly care. Rose wasn't exactly sure which one it would be; either one would fit Dominique, who was always preoccupied with studying even when it wasn't as urgent as this. She put the parchment away again as they entered Ravenclaw Tower, Dominique answering the door-knocker's riddle before Rose or Molly could even get a chance to try.

The common room was full of fifth and seventh years, all obviously studying for their upcoming tests. Victoire and Dominique immediately joined the crowd, not even saying anything to Rose or Molly as they hurried by. The two remaining Weasleys exchanged a look, and then Molly glanced at an available seat next to two other second years. "I should go," she said apologetically. "I have a Potions essay -"

"Good luck," Rose said, and headed up to her dormitory, the plan still running through her mind.

It had to work; Hogwarts couldn't close. There had been the threat of it closing before - twice that she absolutely knew of, at least, besides this one. Both times the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, there had been talk of closing the school, but the attacks had stopped before that could happen. Now it was up to Rose and the others of her generation to stop that from happening. Not just for them, also, Rose thought to herself. If they stopped Hogwarts from closing, then future generations of magical children would also be able to get a good education as well.

She picked up her Defense Against the Dark Arts book and began reading. Who knew, after all, when she might need it?

* * *

**Steadily nearing the end...I can't say for sure how many chapters are left, as I'm not completely sure myself, but we're definitely getting there. Oh, and the moment where Rose tried to get everybody to listen, and Leda had to yell at them to be quiet, was inspired by the movie version of HBP when Ginny yells 'Shut it!' at the Quidditch tryouts. Just thought I'd give credit there, since that definitely helped inspire this scene.**

**Thank you all for reading, of course, and as always, the next chapter should be out sometime next week.**


	18. The File

"Did Lily write you a novel or something?" Leda squinted at the long letter that Rose was holding.

"Sort of. Look." Rose laid the letter across the table. Rose, Leda, Al, and Scorpius were in the library, at their special table that was bordering the Restricted Section. It had only been one day since thirty students had met up to hear Rose's plan for finding the attacker and keeping Hogwarts open, and since then, another student - a half-blood fifth year Ravenclaw that Rose vaguely recognized - had been attacked. It would only be a couple of days before Roxanne's fireworks would come in and they could implement the plan.

Until then, however, they were stuck not doing anything. Of course, Lily's letter was a new development in the other part of their mystery; she had obviously written them to tell about the file of Theodore Nott that she had been assigned to get.

_Dear Rose, Al, Leda, and Scorpius,_

_Well, I went into the Ministry just like you wanted. Merlin, they're a bunch of bloody idiots - I was able to Floo into Dad's office, since he has the fireplace set up to allow any member of our family through in case of emergencies. Nobody even checked. Of course, I had the Cloak, so it wouldn't have mattered. But still. They need better guards._

_Anyway, I was looking around and stuff, and I found the file. I couldn't find another copy, though, so I had to write down the whole bloody thing, and it took a while. Otherwise Dad would have noticed if it was gone. Not that he would have suspected me. Nobody knows about my little late-night trips. I didn't want to cause too much trouble for him, though, so I just wrote it down instead._

_So this bloke, Theodore Nott, was in Azkaban since 2003 - five years after the Battle of Hogwarts. He's the same age as our parents, and he was in Slytherin while he was at school. He stayed at the Battle of Hogwarts and saw what happened, but he didn't actually fight. He just wanted to see who would win and things like that. His father was a Death Eater, and his name was Theodore Nott Sr. But he was killed at the Battle of Hogwarts._

_By somebody named Morag MacDougal._

The four first years looked up from the parchment at the same time. "Professor MacDougal?" Al said, surprised. "She killed a Death Eater?"

"Apparently." Rose glanced down at the letter, than back up towards Al. "We knew she fought there - remember, Kingsley Shacklebolt let anybody who fought become an Auror even if they hadn't taken N.E.W.T.s? That's where a lot of the Aurors came from, in fact. Lots of people joined up after that."

"True."

Rose moved the page. Lily's letter was rather long, thanks to how she had copied out most of the file, and the parchment was as long as a short essay Rose had done a couple weeks ago.

_Theodore Nott - the alive one - saw his father get killed by Morag MacDougal. He was angry about it, and spent the next five years practically stalking her and her boyfriend Terry Boot. He wanted to get revenge, but first he wanted to see if Terry actually meant something to Morag. They got engaged five years after the Battle, and then about a week or so later, Theodore broke into their house. He tortured and killed Terry in order to hurt Morag, leaving before Morag got home._

_Then he decided to kill her as well, so he broke in again. She held him off for a while, though. Then some Aurors came in. Morag was friends with one of them - Romilda Vane, I think - and Romilda was supposed to come over for dinner. Turned out that she came right while Theodore Nott was attacking Morag. She Disapparated super-quick and got backup, and then a bunch of Aurors broke down the door and Stunned Nott. _

_He was taken to Azkaban pretty quickly. He's been in there ever since then, at least until the recent breakout. Fourteen years. So if you think he's the one who's in charge of the Circle of Darkness...well, he certainly seems evil enough for it. I think he'd be able to run it, since he killed somebody and tried to kill another person. Definitely Dark, then. _

_I can't believe Hogwarts is going to close, though! That's so unfair. You should do something about it. Are you? Because I know I certainly would if I was there. I'd never let it close. Hmm...plans..._

"All right," Rose said, quickly scanning the rest of the letter. It was simply the rambles of a ten-year-old, and most of it included ways that she would go out with a bang at Hogwarts (rather like James and Roxanne were doing - they had apparently landed themselves detention for these last two weeks, and were still continuing to make trouble, if the rumors were true). "So it's certainly possible that Nott is in charge, then. Lily's right, he's Dark."

"Exactly. It's not like he's in Azkaban for something relatively minor. This is big." Al nodded at her.

"So he tortured and killed Terry just because he meant something to Professor MacDougal," Scorpius said. "Just because she had killed his father at the Battle of Hogwarts. And then he tried to do the same thing to her as well, but he failed."

"Wait," Leda said. "We think he could be the leader of the Circle of Darkness. Why don't we talk to somebody who might actually know - Professor MacDougal herself. She's the one who fought him, she saw what he did. She could probably, I don't know, give better perspective or something."

"Weren't we trying to keep this a secret? That we're trying to investigate, I mean?" Al wrinkled his forehead in confusion.

"I don't think it matters now," Rose answered, folding up Lily's letter and tucking it in her bag. "The school's closing in two weeks. Plus, it's not like the teachers can stop us - there's really nothing they can do now. Even if Professor MacDougal tells us to stop poking our noses where they don't belong...what can she actually do?"

"Wow," Leda said after a moment had passed. "I think Lily's rubbing off on you."

"Shut up."

Al looked between the two girls, amusement clear on his face. "Well? Are we going, or no?"

"Let's go."

The four students left the library, bags swinging alongside them as they walked. They passed James, Roxanne, Alexandra, and the boy who always hung out with them (whose name Rose still wasn't sure of); the four second years were eagerly discussing more plans to make trouble. Rose heard something about 'if we get the whole class to have Skiving Snackboxes' before they were out of earshot. Rolling her eyes at their antics, Rose hurried down the hall with the others.

It took a little while to reach Professor MacDougal's office, namely because they hadn't been there before and had to ask a passing sixth year for directions. When they finally found it they were relieved to see the Defense professor was indeed there - it would have been a pain if they had went there and it turned out that she was somewhere else. She had a stack of essays in front of her, a quill in her hand, and was obviously marking them. She set it down when they approached her desk. "Yes?" she said expectantly.

"Professor," Rose said nervously. "We, er, we have a question." She looked at the others, and Al gave her a little nudge as if to signify that she was in charge here. "Um, we had - have - a theory about all the things that've been going on. The Circle of Darkness, I mean. We think that Theodore Nott is leading it."

Professor MacDougal recoiled slightly, but promptly regained her composure. "Where did you get that name?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at them. "The Auror Office -"

"Never mind that," Leda said hastily. "Do you think - do you think it's possible?"

"Why do you think I would know?" she asked them.

"We know the story, Professor," Al said quietly. "We know what happened five years after the Battle of Hogwarts. That Theodore Nott killed Terry Boot because you killed Nott Sr. in the Battle. Then he tried to kill you."

"That was a long time ago," she responded. "I have no idea how you came about this information; it was a simple case that occurred a long time ago, and it was closed quickly since Nott was caught in the act. I can see, however, that you're not going to tell me where you came about this knowledge." Professor MacDougal sighed. "You asked if Theodore Nott was capable of being the leader of the Circle of Darkness."

"Yes," Scorpius said. "Is he?"

"The Auror Office has wondered that as well." She paused for a moment, and Rose was certain the professor was wondering if she should tell four first years this sort of information. Finally, she spoke again. "Nothing is certain. We can't be sure who's behind the Circle of Darkness - the one member that we captured for a short time, Joseph Thewlitt, never revealed anything like that. But do I think that Nott would be able to do something like that? Yes. I do. I can't be positive, however, but it's certainly a possibility."

"Thank you," Rose said politely, nodding her head at the professor.

"I do beg of you, don't go trying to solve any of this on your own," Professor MacDougal said, a hint of steel in her tone. "This - both what's happening at Hogwarts and outside of it - is much beyond the abilities of first years. Let the Auror Office handle these things."

"I'm sorry, Professor, but the Auror Office isn't doing anything here," Leda said firmly. "Outside, yeah. But here? No, they're focusing on the deaths of Muggle-borns." She shot a look at Al, as if to say 'Ha, I didn't say Mudblood'. "And while that is important, they're ignoring what's going on at Hogwarts. And lots of stuff is going on here."

Professor MacDougal sighed again, shaking her head. "I know you four are up to something. I can see it. I wish I could stop you, but I know you'd simply find some way around it. Please, don't do anything rash."

"Don't worry about that," Leda said, smirking. "We aren't Gryffindors."

* * *

**All right, so the events that make up the common theme of this chapter - the whole instance with Terry Boot, Morag, and Theodore Nott - can actually be found in another story of mine if you're interested. It's a one-shot entitled She's The Light, and it'll be relatively high up on my profile.**

**As always, thanks for reading, and the next chapter should be up sometime next week!**


	19. Caught

Rose glanced around the classroom. It was eleven o'clock at night, and while normally all the students would either be in their common rooms or dormitories, roughly thirty Hogwarts students were gathered in the classroom that they had met in previously. Rose, Al, Leda, and Scorpius were at the front of the class, standing around the teachers' desk, while everybody else was milling about. Roxanne was standing protectively over a box of fireworks; a few of the younger students kept trying to peek, but she shooed them away.

"All right," Rose said. "We know the plan. Each of us under fourth year is paired up with one of the older students. One of you walks around alone, the other hides somewhere that they can see you. Maybe behind a tapestry or in an alcove or, well, I don't know, just hide somehow. It's dark, so it shouldn't be too difficult. If the attacker comes, set off the fireworks."

"And if we hear somebody else set off fireworks..." James' friend prodded.

Al answered the boy's question. "Stay with your partner. But try to go see where it's coming from and if you can do something about it. Set off your own if you have to - if a teacher comes, that's a good thing, because we're trying to get this person caught."

"I think we're all set," Leda said. "Rose, if you'd read the list..."

"No problem." She held up the list of names and began reading off the pairs; the students began moving about the room even more, calling out names, as they all attempted to find the person that they were partnered up with. Soon after the last pair had been read out, everybody had found the person they had been assigned to. At that point Al, Leda, and Scorpius had moved away from the teacher's desk to stand with the people they were pairs with, while Dominique had walked over to where Rose was. "And Roxanne, could you pass out the fireworks?"

"Of course." Roxanne, her Gryffindor scarf swinging, yanked open the crate and began to distribute the fireworks, handing a couple to each pair. There was even more left over when she was done; apparently Weasley's Wizard Wheezes packed an enormous amount of fireworks into their crates, or Uncle George had given Roxanne a large supply. Rose wondered, in the back of her mind, if Uncle George actually knew what they were doing or if Roxanne had simply asked for fireworks without explanation.

"How do we use them?" Isabella turned one over in her hand, looking for some on switch or mechanism that would enable it to activate.

"Simple. Just set the bottom on fire, and toss it where you want it to go. It'll start in about three seconds after you light it. Don't keep it right on you, of course - that'd be idiotic." Roxanne smirked at her older brother, who was steadfastly trying to avoid looking at her. Something must have happened with fireworks at some point, although Rose didn't remember any such incident. "Easy. So are we all set?"

"Yeah, I think so," Rose answered, tucking her fireworks into a small bag she had brought just for that purpose. "Just try to spread out a little. Don't stay right next to another pair." Right after that, everybody began trickling out. There was no more chatter once the door was opened; a few people still whispered, mainly about which direction to go in, but the full-out conversations had ended. Rose noticed the others leave: Molly was looking adoringly up at Austin Wood, who appeared not to notice, while Leda and Freddie were attempting to ignore one another. "Where should we go?" she whispered to Dominique.

"The library," Dominique replied within a second. "Not inside it," she amended, seeing Rose's slightly disapproving look, "but near it. I'd love to pick up this book for Potions -"

"You are so missing the point," she muttered, but headed to the library with Dominique. "Since you were already attacked, you can hide out with your book - but please pay attention - while I wander around."

"Good," the older girl said happily. "I really do want to read this. It's an important -"

She let Dominique's whispered chatter about the Potions book wash over her as the pair arrived at the library. They crept inside, just long enough for the fifth year to find the book, before settling in the corridor outside it. Dominique slid behind a tapestry, lighting her wand and reading. A faint light could be seen from behind it, but with the moonlight from the nearby window it wasn't particularly noticeable to Rose, and she figured the attacker - if he happened to come this way - wouldn't notice either.

Rose slid the fireworks behind the tapestry so that Dominique would have easy access to them, and commenced walking around. Her hand was in her pocket, on top of her wand, but she didn't draw it out quite yet. She stayed in the one corridor; it was rather long, and she wanted to stay near her older cousin. She knew Dominique had a tendency to get very engrossed in books, and if Rose was too far away, Dominique might not even hear her. At least staying here, there was no way that even Dominique would be able to miss if something happened.

It wasn't easy to keep alert, she soon found. Walking around the same corridor over and over wasn't a particularly interesting situation, and it was late at night - much past the time she was usually in bed. She lost track of the number of times she yawned, and the number of times she went up and down the corridor, and soon enough it felt as though she were mindlessly sleepwalking. Nothing was happening; although she forced herself to listen for any sounds, she couldn't hear a thing apart from Dominique's page-turning and her own footsteps.

She had no idea what time it was. For all she knew it could be two o'clock, or it could be eleven-thirty. She wasn't wearing a watch - neither was Dominique - and there was no way to tell what the time was. It felt like she had been there a long time, but then, it was very, very tedious. She wondered how more impatient people like Leda, Roxanne, and James were doing; if she was getting bored, they were probably even worse off than she was.

Leaning against the wall, Rose sighed. Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea after all. Could a bunch of students really prevent the school from closing? Would simply wandering about after curfew and hoping the attacker cursed somebody actually work? She suddenly doubted her plan, doubted the chances that something like this could work. She wasn't her parents or her uncle; she was no hero or heroine meant to save Hogwarts or the Wizarding world.

She opened her mouth to call Dominique and tell her that they should attempt to round up the others, but a faint 'bang' stopped her in her tracks. Rose shot her head up as another bang, slightly louder, could also be heard. They weren't extremely close or loud, but they were audible, and she was relatively sure that was somebody setting off Roxanne's fireworks. "Dom!" she hissed, and the older girl stumbled out from behind the tapestry, her wand already lit from reading.

The two Weasleys raced off in the direction they were sure the fireworks had been coming from. Within about a minute, there were more bangs, closer this time, and they hurried up. Rose was running as fast as she could - not very fast - in order to keep up with Dominique. Although her older cousin was no athlete like Roxanne or James, Dominique's height and slim stature gave her an advantage over petite, solid Rose. The first year was panting heavily by the time they finally reached the area where the fireworks had been coming from.

The fireworks were still dancing around in the air, spinning colorful patterns, although the initial explosions had faded. There were too many patterns floating around to have come from just the two or three that each pair had been provided with, and as the pair of Weasley girls rounded the corner, they instantly saw what had happened.

There were five people there. Austin Wood and Molly were both standing upright, their wands out, and the latter's sleeve slightly singed, presumably from lighting the fireworks. Isabella was slumped unconscious against a wall while Patrick Tomlinson, Dominique's fellow Ravenclaw prefect, and the boy who had been partnered with Isabella, attempted to revive her. In the middle of it all lay a seventh year girl, unconscious, that Rose didn't recognize; the girl's Slytherin tie was prominent.

Rose recalled the list of names. They had eliminated everybody but seventh years, and there had been three seventh year Slytherins who had been at Hogwarts over the holidays and therefore had the opportunity to be the attacker. Rachel Thewlitt, the one that they had suspected all along, and two others - Ava Greenwood and Barnabas Avery. Obviously this girl was either Rachel or Ava; Rose couldn't be sure who this girl was. Either way, she was caught.

Dominique rushed over to Patrick. "What happened?" she asked, looking around from him to Isabella, to the unconscious girl, to Molly and Austin.

"Isabella was walking around to lure the attacker out. That girl -" he pointed at the Slytherin -"came and managed to fling Isabella into a wall, with magic of course, before I set off the fireworks. It startled her, and she started firing spells at me, but Austin and Molly came and set their fireworks off, and then Austin and I both Stunned her at the same time. I don't know who she is."

"Neither do I," Dominique said. "Victoire might - they'd probably share at least a class or two. What do we do now?"

Rose found everybody looking at her; it was a strange feeling, having these people who were all older look to her for what to do. "We find a teacher," she answered. "We find a teacher, and we explain what happened. Not to mention we have to attempt to round everybody else up." She took the fireworks out of her bag and headed a little ways down the hallway. Quickly setting one on fire, she pulled her arm back and threw it as far as she could; it hit the wall, since the corridor turned left. It exploded into a fiery display, and Rose repeated the process, although this time she threw it in the opposite direction.

Within a couple minutes two more pairs arrived: Leda and Freddie, and Victoire and Ling. "Is she okay?" Leda asked, nodding her head at still-unconscious Isabella.

"She's alive," Patrick replied. "I'm sure Madam Bones will be able to wake her up."

"We did it, then!" Leda grinned. "Nice one, Rose. Your idea, after all."

"It was Patrick, Isabella, Molly, and Austin who actually caught her," Rose replied. "I just came up with it."

"Anyway," Victoire interrupted, "how about if us four go round up the others, and you all can bring Isabella to the Hospital Wing and find Professor Clearwater or, at the very least, a professor? We can't just stay here."

The others nodded, and Leda, Freddie, Victoire, and Ling left again to find the others. It was over, Rose thought with relief. It was finally over.

* * *

**Yep, I realize I didn't tell you who the girl was! I wanted to save some stuff for later, since a lot happens here. There will be a few more chapters, perhaps three, although I can't be absolutely definite on that. We're close to the end, though! **

**Thanks for reading, and the next chapter will be up sometime next week.**


	20. What Happens Next

Austin, Molly, Patrick, Dominique, and Rose stood there for a moment over the two unconscious bodies - Isabella and the attacker. Finally, Dominique turned so that she was standing in front of them. "I'll take Isabella to the Hospital Wing," she said firmly. "You four bring..." She gestured awkwardly to the seventh year Slytherin laying on the floor. "Bring her to a professor. Somebody's bound to be out here." She flicked her wand at Isabella, levitating the first year, and walked away from the others, Isabella floating along next to her.

Patrick promptly did the same to the Slytherin, and the four of them - five if anybody counted the attacker - set off, not going in any particular direction. They had been walking for about three minutes when Patrick stopped. "Why didn't I think of this before? There's always a professor patrolling near the Room of Requirement, in case students try to sneak into it at night. A lot of people know about it since the Second Wizarding War, and the role it played - there should be somebody there. Let's go."

With renewed vigor, they began to walk again, Patrick leading them. It wasn't that long before they reached the Room of Requirement, and, just like he had expected, a professor was there. She turned around when they arrived - it was Professor MacDougal, who looked rather surprised at the scene that lay before her. "What on earth are you doing?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"We caught the person who was attacking everybody," Rose said. "Well, it's kind of a long story, I guess, but look - this is her. Her name is either Rachel Thewlitt or Ava Greenwood - oh, but you would know, right, because she'd be in your class?"

"This is Ava Greenwood," Professor MacDougal replied, still looking rather shocked about the whole situation. "How can you be sure that she was the one attacking students for the past several months?"

"She attacked Isabella Aberdeen," Patrick said. "Rose here thought of a plan to catch the attacker. About thirty students are wandering the halls tonight, Professor, in an attempt to bait whoever was assaulting students. One person would walk around, and the other would hide so that when the person came, the hiding student would use the element of surprise in order to defeat whoever was attempting to harm them. Ava came and used some spell to throw Isabella into a wall, and then Austin and I Stunned her at the same time."

"Merlin," the professor replied. "Thirty of you were in on this...apparently it's some sort of Hogwarts tradition for the students to solve things before the adults can. Professor Clearwater and I will have to question Miss Greenwood, of course, and as far as you - well, we'll also have to hear what you have to say also."

"It was Rose's plan," Molly said. "She came up with the idea. We're just the ones who actually did it."

"All right." Professor MacDougal looked at the four students. "It's much past midnight, and I'm sure the headmistress will agree with me that keeping you up until odd hours of the morning would not be a good idea. I'll bring Miss Greenwood somewhere safe, and I'd like to see you four at the Headmistress's office right after breakfast, when we'll hear what you have to say. For now, go back up to your dormitories, and attempt to get some sleep."

"So Hogwarts won't close?" Rose said anxiously.

"If Miss Greenwood really is the one behind these attacks on students, then there is no reason for the school to close. We still have to verify this, of course, but if it's true...then it should be safe. In which case, you might want to start studying, as there's a good chance exams might still occur."

"Damn it," Austin said, before realizing that he was in the presence of a teacher. "Sorry, Professor."

"I think, in this one instance, I'll let it slide," she said, waving her wand and causing the still form of Ava Greenwood to come closer to her. "Get to bed, all of you. I'll see you in the morning."

Austin promptly went in one direction, while the three Ravenclaws headed in another, leaving Professor MacDougal and Ava behind. Patrick walked briskly, causing Molly and Rose to almost jog in order to keep up with him. At that pace, it didn't seem like long until they reached Ravenclaw Tower. As usual, Patrick answered the door-knocker's riddle before either younger student could even get a chance; it seemed like that was always the case. Once inside, they split up to go to their separate dormitories, and as soon as Rose fell into her bed, she was asleep.

* * *

The atmosphere at breakfast was very interesting. Neither Professor MacDougal nor Professor Clearwater mentioned anything about Ava Greenwood's capture, since apparently she had not been questioned yet, but the thirty students who had been part of Rose's plan all knew that somebody had been caught. As a result they were excited and even rowdy; James and Roxanne set off a firework in the area between two of the House tables, causing the students sitting there to shriek and flinch away, and also causing the two of them to receive detention. In addition, classes had been canceled for the day, although none of the students were given the reason. Rose, of course, figured that it had to do with Ava's capture.

Once breakfast was over, Rose caught up with Molly, and the two Weasleys quickly found Patrick. "Do you know how to get to the Headmistress's office?" Molly asked.

"Of course," he said, a note of pompousness creeping into his tone. "Prefects always do, in case of emergency. I hope Wood's able to find it..." he added, but made no move to head back and attempt to find Austin. He led the two girls out of the Great Hall and through several corridors, and up staircases, until they came upon a stretch of wall with a stone gargoyle standing in front of it. "Chocolate frogs," he said, and Rose was just about to ask why he said that when the gargoyle moved, showing a spiral staircase.

When they reached the top, Rose nearly gasped in shock. Portraits adorned the walls, all of them former Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts. She recognized a few of them, namely Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Minerva McGonagall, who had retired just a couple of years previously and was quietly living in a country house that Rose's mother had visited a few times.

Professor Clearwater was already standing there, and a couple of minutes later, Professor MacDougal arrived with Austin in tow. She looked disapprovingly at Patrick. "You should have waited for Mr. Wood," she said. "He isn't a prefect, and wouldn't know the password. I had to bring him up." She then glanced expectantly at the Headmistress. "Do you wish for me to stay, or should I leave?"

"Stay here - as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, you should be completely informed in the matters of the attacker." The Headmistress gestured for the four students to sit down, which they promptly did. She then had each of them recount their parts in Ava Greenwood's capture. Rose's questioning was the longest, as she had been the one to actually come up with the plan, and she also mentioned the time that she, Leda, Al, and Scorpius had spent in the library, narrowing down the list of students until they had come up with a few people whom it could have been.

Once each of them had a chance to speak, Professor Clearwater gestured to the Defense professor. "Please go fetch Miss Greenwood," she said. "I wish to speak with her as well, and see what she has to say in the whole matter. The four of you are dismissed," she added, and Austin, Patrick, Rose, and Molly headed back down the spiral staircase.

* * *

Nobody knew what had happened until lunch. The students were fidgeting, as the food had not yet arrived on the tables, when Professor Clearwater stood up. "I have an announcement to make," she said, her voice strong and clear, instantly quieting the restless students. "You all know about the person terrorizing Hogwarts, which is why the school was set to close. This person was a student, and she has been captured, and is now at the Ministry right now. You no longer have to worry about her. Because of this, Hogwarts will remain open. There is no need for it to close."

The tables erupted in riots that reminded Rose of the one several weeks ago, except this one was completely positive, completely happy. The students - even sixth and seventh years - were yelling, screaming, and cheering. Left and right, people were hugging and high-fiving one another; a couple students were standing on the benches, and Roxanne threw yet another firework into the air above them, causing even more cheering.

It took a while for everybody to calm down and sit back in their seats. "Exams are still going to be held for all years, in that case, so I urge you all to begin studying again." While normally such news would cause massive disappointment, instead she was only met with a few groans. The Hogwarts population was still excited by the news that they would be able to return, and things like end-of-year tests didn't seem to matter as much. They were too happy to be brought down.

It did seem perfect to Rose. Ava Greenwood was captured; the school would remain open. It had been her plan that caused it. She felt proud and happy, surrounded by her still chattering Housemates, and she grinned. It was an exciting first year, certainly, and it wasn't even over yet. Nearly over, yes, but there was still weeks left.

Right then, though, she didn't care about exams or whatever might happen in the weeks to come. It was enough to know that Hogwarts was still going to be open, that she could return next year. That Louis and Lucy would get a chance to experience the beauty of the school, and then Hugo and Lily the year after. Everybody, she thought, deserved to come here. There was nothing that could beat it, in this moment, in her mind. Nothing.

* * *

**This isn't the last chapter, just so you know. There'll probably be a couple more, either two or three, I'm not positive yet. Still a bit more to go, though, so keep your eyes open for it. Anyway, thanks for reading and please review!**


	21. In The Library

A few days passed by with nothing out of the ordinary happening. The students were still rather excitable, especially the younger ones, but the atmosphere had certainly calmed down from the riotous happiness that had been shown right after Professor Clearwater's announcement. There had, of course, been no further attacks, and the rules about sticking together had been lifted. Hogwarts was back to the way it had been before the attacks, and it was pleasing to everybody.

It was a Friday afternoon, after classes had let out, and Rose was hurrying into the library. She had stopped by Ravenclaw Tower to drop off some of her books, so that she wasn't carrying around a completely filled bag - the chances that she would get any studying done were minimal, anyway. She slid into her seat at the table where she, Al, Leda, and Scorpius had sat every single time they had come to the library, ignoring the fact that Leda was smirking at Al, who was sulking. It was obvious they had been bickering before she arrived, but she decided to ignore that fact.

"Lily wrote to me today," she said instead, causing a change in both of their demeanors. Both Leda's smirking, smug expression and Al's sulky one morphed into interest, and Scorpius leaned forward as well, raising his eyebrows.

"Have you read it?" he asked before the other two could get a chance.

"No," Rose replied. "I didn't want to at the breakfast table, because Nina was in a very nosy mood. She was trying to read Allison's letter, and I was scared she would read mine, too. And I really don't want any of Lily's...escapades...to get out."

"Good point," Leda said. "She's already going to be talked about enough when she becomes the first Potter-Weasley in Slytherin."

Scorpius chuckled, but Al made a face at the Lestrange girl. "Lily will not be in Slytherin with you. You'd corrupt her."

"_I'd _corrupt _her?_" Leda laughed. "I'm not the one who's snuck into the Ministry of Magic in the dead of night. I'm not the one who copies official Auror files, which probably isn't completely legal. Hell, I'd like to learn some things from her."

Al looked as though he was going to return to his sulking expression, but Rose waved the letter around. "When you two are done," she said, "maybe we could see what's inside here?"

"I'm done if she's done," Al muttered.

"All right then," Rose answered, rolling her eyes at the pair of them as she opened the letter. In the back of her mind, she was remembering stories about her own parents, and how they had grown up bickering and fighting all the time before realizing that they loved each other. She couldn't help comparing the first part of those stories to Leda and Al - wouldn't it be hilarious, she thought, if the two of them ended up together? She suppressed a smile and slid the letter to the center of the table, and they all crowded around to read it.

_Dear Rose,_

_I heard that Hogwarts isn't going to close - Roxanne wrote and told me. I'd been giving her a few ideas about how to make a grand exit, since you completely ignored that part of my letter to you. And I heard that it was your plan that saved the school, which is, to put it simply, awesome. It's like you're our parents, Rose, coming up with these great plans to save everything. Fantastic job. _

_Anyway, I've been keeping in touch with Molly as well, and she told me that the person who'd been attacking everybody is a girl named Ava Greenwood. I was bored last night, so I decided to go into Dad's office again and see if I could find any information on Ava Greenwood. And I did! I thought you might be interested, since you're the one who caught her and all that, so I copied some of the more interesting parts of her file down for you._

_The plan to attack Hogwarts students was a plan from the Circle of Darkness. They wanted to attack enough students to have Hogwarts shut down - then they'd swoop in and reopen it, except they'd make it exclusively for purebloods and half-bloods. But none of the teachers there were on their side, so they had to rely on a student. Joseph Thewlitt volunteered his sister Rachel, a seventh year Slytherin, but Rachel didn't want to be the one behind the attacks because she felt it would have been obvious. So Rachel then volunteered her friend Ava, who had always been interested in the Dark Arts._

_Ava was more than happy to attack students, because she fully believed in the Circle's mindset of 'purebloods are awesome, Muggle-borns suck, let's use Dark magic against them'. The Circle of Darkness told her that she didn't have to be picky, as long as all the attacked students were either Muggle-borns or blood-traitors. She got to attack whoever she wanted, within those rules, and she did. I know she attacked Dominique because Ava didn't particularly like her, and she attacked Teresa Vane-MacDougal because she didn't like Professor MacDougal. I think most of the others were just random, though - students who had been alone when she was nearby, or something like that._

_Anyway, she's facing time in Azkaban, certainly. I don't know how much, but she is technically overage, so she'll be tried like an adult. And to think, Rose, you were the one behind this...it's just kind of impressive. It really is like something that would have happened while our parents were at Hogwarts. _

_Love, Lily_

Rose and the others looked up from the letter within seconds of one another, and she slid it back into her bag. "So that's why Ava did the things she did," Rose muttered, zipping it closed.

"And like Lily said, you came up with the plan that caught her." Al traced the carved initials on the desk. It seemed like so long ago that Leda had done that, although it really wasn't. They still remained, the LL, AP, RW, and SM, just as noticeable as they had been the first day. Obviously, either no teachers paid attention to this desk, or it was minor enough that nobody cared.

"It was a clever plan," Leda admitted, twisting a lock of dark hair around her finger. "Worthy of a Ravenclaw, certainly. Didn't I say, on the train coming here for the first time, that you're such a Ravenclaw?"

"Yeah," Rose answered. "Merlin, that seems like forever ago, but it's barely been a year."

"I can't believe we're leaving here soon," Scorpius contributed, looking around the library. "You know, we should get together over the summer sometime. You three could always come to my house - there's certainly more than enough room. I can never remember how many guest rooms there are...at least ten, though."

Al and Rose exchanged a look. "You do realize," Al began slowly, "that Rose's parents and mine don't actually know we're friends with a Malfoy and a Lestrange?"

Leda nodded. "My mum and dad don't know I'm friends with a Weasley and a Potter, so I guess we're even." She nodded at Scorpius. "You, they'd approve of. Do your parents know about anything, either?"

"My mum does," Scorpius answered. "She doesn't care about who's pureblood and things like that. She even fought against Death Eaters at the Battle of Hogwarts. I thought it was safe to tell her that I'm friends with Rose Weasley and Al Potter, and she was fine with it. Haven't told Dad, though...he hates your parents, no offense."

"We'll have to tell them at some point," Rose said, visualizing herself telling her father that she was friends with Scorpius Malfoy and Leda Lestrange. Oh well, she thought, at least she knew that her mother would stick up for her. Mum had said, after all, not to turn Scorpius and Rose against one another before they even met. Hopefully she still had that mindset. "After all, it would be great to get together. Maybe you two could come over, too, and join one of our Weasley-Potter family gatherings. They are...interesting."

"I think," Al answered, choosing his words carefully, "that if Lily and Leda ever got together for an extended period of time, that they would cause chaos."

"Good," Leda said. "I like the idea of causing chaos with your awesome Slytherin sister."

"Lily is not in Slytherin!"

"Yet."

Rose exchanged a glance with Scorpius, who, like her, seemed to have the same amused mindset to the whole thing. While Leda and Al continued to bicker about Lily's Slytherin behavior, and it quickly changed to their usual quarreling - 'At least my family isn't in Azkaban' 'At least my name isn't Albus Severus' - Rose leaned over so that her mouth was right next to Scorpius's ear.

"My parents used to act just like this," she whispered, "and they ended up married."

Scorpius laughed, looking from Leda to Al and then back again. "I think," he murmured so they wouldn't hear, "that when we're older, they'll become the type of people that others take bets on. You know, betting they'll get together by a certain date or something like that? Because it's obvious to everybody but them?"

Rose snorted. "They'll totally become that pair, definitely."

He grinned in response. "I've always known that Hogwarts was interesting. But I never expected...any of this. Becoming friends with the people I least expected, then everything with Ava Greenwood and the Circle, and Lily's...antics...this really was a thrilling year."

"Agreed. If this was just the beginning...I can't wait to see what the rest of it brings." She half-expected Leda or Al to jump into the conversation, but the two of them were still caught up in bickering with one another. It seemed as though they actually enjoyed it - or at least, Leda certainly did. Even Al had a certain gleam in his eye that showed he knew he was baiting her, just as she was to him. "Merlin," she muttered, more to herself than to Scorpius, "I'm really looking forward to my next years here."

It was nice to know that now, she would be returning for those next years. There was nothing stopping her now - Ava Greenwood was expelled - thus unable to take N.E.W.T.s - and now facing time in Azkaban. Rose would come back, and so would Al and Leda and Scorpius. So would her roommates, and her cousins, and they would be able to do the things they had been waiting for all their childhood.

Hogwarts, she mused, really was one of the best places in the world.

* * *

**I just adore writing Leda and Al bickering...it amuses me. Plus I kind of ship them, too, so it's even more fun. I definitely see a bit of a Ron/Hermione dynamic with them. And of course, since I'm me, Slytherin!Lily is basically implied. I seriously can't write Next-Gen without writing her in Slytherin.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading! It's not over yet, by the way, I'll make sure to let you know when it is.**


	22. The Feast and the Train

Life at Hogwarts continued, and now it was normal - no attacks, no planning, just studying for exams and hanging out in the common room and library. It was lovely to have another taste of what Hogwarts was like when nothing was going on, and to Rose, it was heaven. The mood among the students in general was quite similar - although fifth and seventh years stressed about O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, for the most part everything was good. Even Allison and Veronica were getting along better than they ever had, and Nina couldn't stop talking about the five of them getting together at one point over the summer.

Exams, to Rose, were a very interesting experience. She had been taught at home prior to Hogwarts, mostly by her mum (although the other Weasley-Potter adults sometimes helped out if Rose's mother was too busy), and there had never been any real tests that she had to study for. For the most part, Rose didn't mind the studying. The subjects were all somewhat intriguing to her, and she loved to learn things and read, so it wasn't that much of a problem. She often met up with Leda, Al, and Scorpius to study as well, since they each had their strengths and weaknesses, and they helped each other.

On the actual tests, she did quite well. As expected, she had done better in the written portions than the practical ones, but she had managed to pass every single subject with good scores (compared to Leda and Al, both who nearly failed History of Magic, and Scorpius, who nearly failed Astronomy because he was dozing during the exam). It was a relief to be done, although it was also bittersweet in a way, knowing she wouldn't return to this school for nearly two months. She had learned and done so much here at Hogwarts, and she couldn't wait to begin her second year.

She stood outside the Great Hall with Leda, Al, and Scorpius. "Can you believe we're almost done?" Scorpius said to the others. "Merlin, we're leaving Hogwarts tomorrow."

"I know," Rose replied. "I can't believe it either. Hopefully we can get together over the summer - if my father doesn't ban me, of course."

Leda laughed nervously. "I know what you mean. I don't fancy the idea of telling Mum. Of course -" and here she smiled in a devilish, Slytherin way -"she does approve of you, Scorpius, and if I simply told her that I was going over your house...that would be much easier." She glanced at the crowd of students piling into the Great Hall. "Come on, let's go get seats before we miss half of it. We'll meet up on the train tomorrow, all right?"

"Definitely," Rose and Al answered within seconds of one another. They headed into the Hall, splitting up almost instantly as they headed to their three separate House tables. Rose found a spot between Allison and Isabella, glancing up at the staff table as she did so. As soon as the last students entered the room, Professor Clearwater stood up.

"Before we eat, the House Cup must be awarded to the House which has the most points. In fourth place, we have Gryffindor, with three hundred and sixteen points." Honestly, Rose thought, it was a miracle that they had that many, considering the antics that James and Roxanne had been up to for, well, practically the whole year. "In third place, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and thirty-two points." Looking over at them, she noticed that Al looked rather disappointed, although he kept glancing between Ravenclaw and Slytherin as though wondering who was going to get it.

Professor Clearwater let the applause for the Hufflepuffs die down, and even paused a little more as though to build suspense, before continuing, "In second place, Ravenclaw, with three hundred and sixty-nine points." As everyone cheered - including Rose's Housemates themselves, who were happy to at least get second - the Slytherins could be seen looking rather smug, as they knew what was coming next. "And, in first place, Slytherin, the winners of the Quidditch Cup also, as you know, with three hundred and eighty-seven points, making them the winners of the House Cup."

Al looked rather sulky, she couldn't help but noticing, as Leda and Scorpius began rowdily celebrating with the rest of the Slytherins. The Great Hall was promptly decorated in silver and green with a flick of Professor Clearwater's wand, and one of the older students caused confetti to start raining down. It was as though the Slytherins were having a party right there in the Great Hall, and it took a little while for them to settle down. "Yes, congratulations to Slytherin House is in order," Professor Clearwater said, and before they could start clapping and calling out again, she continued quickly. "Job well done, all of you. It has been a very...interesting... year, and I am looking forward to seeing you, along with some new faces, back here in September. And I don't want to keep you from your meal any longer, so let the Leaving Feast begin!"

Food appeared all along the tables, and Rose eagerly dug in, knowing that this was the last meal of her first year at Hogwarts. It felt weird, to know that she'd be going back home after spending so much time here - she hadn't even gone home for Christmas or Easter holidays. She hadn't seen Lucy, Louis, or Hugo for months, nor her parents, uncles, and aunts. Although she knew she would miss this place that had become her second home (one of many, that is, since all the Weasley-Potter homes were also second homes to her), she also couldn't wait to see everybody again.

Then, in September, she'd start her second year. Victoire would no longer be here, since she had just finished her seventh year, but Lucy and Louis would be joining them for the first time. She was looking forward to her second year nearly as much as she was looking forward to the summer - coming back here, spending time with Leda, Al, and Scorpius, spending time with her roommates, just _being here..._she truly, really loved Hogwarts.

* * *

"All right," Scorpius said as the four of them claimed a compartment, levitating their trunks into the overhead compartments. "I think you three should definitely come over my house this summer, if your parents allow it."

"Merlin, that would be great," Al said. "Hmm, telling my parents should be interesting, though. You're lucky, Rose, Aunt Hermione would be on your side."

"True," Rose answered, plopping down next to Al, across from the two Slytherins. "I bet I'll be able to go. She'll wear him down - she usually does. Then, Al, she might be able to convince your parents, too."

Al perked up. "Yeah, you're right! That's good. Anyway...Merlin, Lily's going to be such a pain this summer, you know?"

"Maybe I should come to one of these Weasley family gatherings," Leda said thoughtfully. "Lily certainly seems like the type of person I'd get along with."

"I don't think that's a compliment," Al muttered.

"Or, maybe..." Rose interrupted the two of them before they could start bickering. The train had just started moving, surely they could wait longer than that. "Maybe Lily could come to Malfoy Manor for a day or so, that way she's in somebody else's house and she'll behave a bit better. Or, at least, she won't blow it up."

Scorpius looked wary. "You sure about that?"

"I promise," Al said solemnly, "my sister will not blow up your house. Only because it's much too big for her to do that."

The conversation continued for nearly the whole ride back to King's Cross, and by the time familiar surroundings came into view, they had already touched upon so many topics that Rose had lost track. Leda and Al had bickered a few times, although either Scorpius or Rose was usually able to get them back onto a safe subject, and Lily had also come up in the topics multiple times, as did Weasley's Wizard Wheezes (which Leda was much too curious about, in Rose's opinion). They had already made perfect plans for the summer - once Rose and Al introduced their parents to the idea of being friends with Scorpius and Leda, the four would exchange owls until they could come up with a time that was good for all of them, and the two Weasley-Potters and Leda would go to Malfoy Manor.

They had also decided that Scorpius and Leda would becoming to the last Weasley-Potter get-together of the summer. It was held at the end of August, a couple of days before Hogwarts started, and was always at Shell Cottage, for its proximity to the beach. It was always the rowdiest, as it was their last chance to have fun like this before heading back to school, and Rose was positive that Scorpius and Leda would have a wonderful time.

It was a perfect plan for the summer, in Rose's mind, and she sighed happily. Not to mention, there was also the potential prospect of getting together with her roommates, if Nina was serious about inviting the other four girls over, and there would be many Weasley-Potter parties over the summer, as there always were. She couldn't imagine a better summer; she couldn't imagine better friends in Scorpius, Leda, Al, and her roommates. It had been a terrifying, thrilling year, but it had also been wonderful in ways.

It still excited her that she had been part of something comparable to things that her parents done. She had been part of a group that stopped Hogwarts from closing - hell, she was the one who actually came up with the idea of the group. Rose was proud of herself, and of the people who had actually been responsible for trapping Ava Greenwood, and she was simply pleased that she now had something that set her apart. She wasn't just the daughter of Ron and Hermione Weasley, war heroes. She was Rose Weasley, and she was making a name for herself on her own.

She couldn't wait to go back.

* * *

**All right, so this is officially the last chapter. Thank you all so much for reading - all the reviews and favorites and alerts make me happy, and I'm so glad to see that there has been interest in this story.**

**Also, I would like to thank Shira Lansys and her Long Haul Competition - it's kept me updating weekly, even when I don't think I can get a chapter out. I know without this competition, updates would have been extremely erratic, so I'm really happy that I entered that, and I'm still part of it, also.**

**So the question I'm sure a few people are wondering: Will there be a sequel? The answer to this is no. I had originally planned out seven books focusing on Rose, Al, Leda, and Scorpius during their time at Hogwarts, but looking back over them I realize that it just wouldn't work. I can't write a seven-part series at this point, and I don't think I'll be able to. I'm sorry to those of you who had hoped for more. I wouldn't be able to write something that long, and I know there would be contradictions and plot holes. **

**Again, I thank you all for your interest you have taken in this story, and I hope you check out more of my stories. I will be starting another multi-chapter next week, as part of the Long Haul Competition, in case you're interested.**

**-lunalestrange4**


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